Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin Tuesday night criticized Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain for public remarks he made about the Aurora Police Department.
Irvin criticized Hain for comments he made to the Chicago Sun-Times in an article last week about a May 2023 incident in Kane County in which 38-year-old Jim Moriarty was shot and killed by Kane County Sheriff’s deputies.
The mayor made his comments during this week’s Aurora City Council meeting.
The incident took place after a chase that ended in a crash near Fabyan Parkway and Randall Road on the border of Batavia and Geneva.
The incident is still under investigation, and law enforcement officials have declined comment on the incident until the investigation is over.
But Irvin said while he would not comment on the investigation, he could not “allow comments attributed to Sheriff Ron Hain in the article go unanswered.”
Aurora police said in an incident report that Kane County deputies compromised an undercover operation they were involved in outside Moriarty’s apartment on the West Side of Aurora. Police were waiting by his parked car with the intent of arresting him without incident, according to Irvin.
Hain ordered his officers to seize the car, which they did with marked squad cars against the wishes of the Aurora police, according to police reports.
Aurora police left the area, figuring their operation had been compromised, according to reports.
The next day, Moriarty is accused of carjacking a Honda Accord at a Jiffy Lube in Aurora. Deputies later spotted the vehicle using license plate readers in the South Elgin area.
Police initiated a pursuit that ended at Randall and Fabyan, where the vehicle was stopped by sheriff’s deputies. At that point, police said Moriarty exited the vehicle and displayed a weapon toward deputies.
A police dog was deployed and became involved in an active struggle with the man, officials said.
An exchange of gunfire occurred, officials said, during which the man and the police dog were shot. Both Moriarty and the police dog died during the shootout.
In the Sun-Times article, Hain said he did not realize the extent of the Aurora operation because someone in his office did not give him the details. He said his deputies were trying to take the car away from Moriarty because he allegedly had substance abuse issues.
What irritated Irvin was that Hain called the Aurora police reactive, and accused the Aurora reaction of escalating things by waiting, rather than getting a warrant and going into the apartment to arrest Moriarty.
“There is nothing reactive about trying to arrest a suspect using a coordinated effort with the least amount of force and exposing the subject, and our officers, to the least amount of danger possible,” Irvin said. “Not only is that good police work, it saves lives.”
Irvin said if Hain had allowed the Aurora police to “do their jobs,” the events of the next 24 hours were “likely preventable.”
According to the police report, a Kane County Sheriff’s Department supervisor called an Aurora official later at some point and apologized for towing the car. According to the Sun-Times story, Hain also apologized.
“Just as Sheriff Hain apologized for his actions … he should apologize for his careless and consequential directives that night and his continued attack on the Aurora Police Department a year later,” Irvin said Tuesday.
slord@tribpub.com
