Southland crime: Shootings in Homewood and Lansing, home invasion near Crete, and more

The following items were taken from police and court reports and news releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

Burbank

ILLEGAL GUN: Burbank police say a Chicago man suspected of taking a car at gunpoint from a parking lot in Oak Lawn late Sept. 28 had a 9 mm handgun when they took him into custody. Oak Lawn police said Damon J. Trout, 20, is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking in connection.

Crete

COMMERCIAL BURGLARY: Police say Shorewood Home and Auto, 3445 Eagle Nest DrIve, was the target of an early morning smash-and-grab burglary. Officers responding to a 4:15 a.m. Oct. 2 alarm at the store found an exterior door forced open but the intruders gone, police said.

Crete Township

HOME INVASION: John L. Sasuta, 49, 1600 block of Austin Avenue, Crete, was arrested at about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 6 in unincorporated Crete Township after kicking in the door of a home in the 500 block of Arlington Lane and demanding money from a resident while brandishing a pipe, Will County sheriff’s police said. Officers used a Taser after Sasuta refused to lower the pipe and then took him to an area medical facility for treatment of an unrelated cut to his head, sheriff’s police said. He is charged with home invasion, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal damage to property, according to court records online.

Evergreen Park

STRANGER DANGER: A man approached a girl walking in the area of 99th Street and Kedzie Avenue at 4:55 p.m. and made inappropriate comments and then approached her again while driving five blocks later near 99th Street and Trumbull Avenue, police said.

Homer Glen

ILLEGAL GUN: Dennis M. Gray, 48, 13200 block of Florence Road, Mokena, was arrested Oct. 5 at Parker Road and Glen Entrance Drive and accused of drunken driving and violating the terms of his concealed carry license while transporting a .357 magnum revolver, Will County sheriff’s police said. Illinois law prohibits concealed carry license holders from carrying a concealed firearm while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

Homewood

RESIDENT SHOT: A resident was shot Oct. 2, sustaining nonlife-threatening injuries during an attempted vehicle theft south/southeast of the intersection of 183rd Street and Kedzie Avenue, police said. Alerted at 3:30 a.m. by a car engine starting, the resident went to his driveway in the 3000 block of Matthew Lane and was shot by strangers in his vehicle, police said.

Lansing

ILLEGAL GUN: John L. Bailey, 42, Chicago, is scheduled to appear in Cook County court at Markham Oct. 26, charged with illegally carrying/possessing a firearm, according to a court spokesperson. Bailey, on parole from a heroin sales conviction, was arrested Sept. 17 at 173rd Street and Torrence Avenue after an officer recovered a .380 caliber handgun from the vehicle’s glove box, police said.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: Kortland Bryant, undisclosed age, Portage, Indiana, was arrested Sept. 19 in the 17600 block of Torrence Avenue and accused of aggravated battery and aggravated resisting a police officer after fleeing from and then grappling with officers investigating a battery at a store in the 17300 block of Torrence Avenue, police said.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: Daniel J. Wallace, 36, 1300 block of Balmoral Avenue, Calumet City, was arrested Sept. 19 in the 17300 block of Torrence Avenue and subsequently charged with aggravated battery to a police officer for pushing the officer’s arm away during his arrest, police said.

ROAD RAGE: Jerrell W. Harris, 31, Chicago, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and being an armed habitual criminal in connection with a Sept. 21 road rage incident in Lansing, Illinois State Police said. Harris was traveling west on Interstate 80 near Torrence Avenue at noon when he shot the other driver, who was taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.

Mokena

BURGLARY: An unidentified man used a garage opener from an unlocked car early Oct. 2 to enter a garage in the 12200 block of Maggies Way before fleeing in an SUV, police said.

New Lenox

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: Ralph A. Tolbert, 65, 16000 block of Watters Drive, Lockport, is scheduled in Court Oct. 18, charged with aggravated battery to a nurse, according to Will County court records online. Officers arrested Tolbert Sept. 13 at Silver Cross Hospital after he grabbed a caregiver acting as a nurse and pushed that individual to the ground, police said.

HARASSMENT: Male juveniles in a car circled a woman holding a pro-life sign Oct. 6 at Lincoln Highway and Cedar Road, swore at her and threw a cup of ice in her face, police said. The woman declined to pursue complaints, police said.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: James W. Rossow Jr., 22, 200 block of Pine Street, New Lenox, is scheduled in court Oct. 22, charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a first responder, according to Will County court records online. Rossow punched an officer during an Oct. 7 disturbance in a department store parking lot at 500 Lincoln Highway and spat in the face of a paramedic transporting him to a hospital for detoxification, police said.

ILLEGAL GUN: Timothy A. Candelaria, 45, Cookville, Texas, was arrested and accused of unlawful use of a weapon and illegal possession of a controlled substance Oct. 7 in the 2500 block of East Lincoln Highway, police said. An officer recovered a loaded .40 caliber handgun, 16 opiate-based pills and 80 grams of an unidentified white powder after stopping Candelaria for driving in the oncoming lanes, police said.

Oak Lawn

ROBBERY: An Oak Lawn man who was banned from the 7-Eleven, 4501 95th St., Oct. 5 returned less than three hours later, punched the clerk and took his cellphone, police said. Shadi K. Ahmad,35, undisclosed block of Meade Avenue, was accused of trespassing, criminal damage to property, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Orland Park

AGGRAVATED DUI: Rafael Reyes, 62, 5200 block of Harcourt Street, Oak Forest, was charged with aggravated drunken driving Sept. 20 after officers found him asleep at the wheel with the engine running in a store parking lot in the 15600 block of La Grange Road, police said. The officers, who followed Reyes from traffic, arrested and accused him of drunken driving, driving on a suspended license and illegally transporting liquor, police said.

DUI CRASH: Police say a Lockport man who drove into a police squad while asleep at the wheel had two fake Ohio driver’s licenses. Kyle A. Purcell, 20, 16200 block of Vista Lane, was arrested Sept. 22 at 143rd Street and La Grange Road and accused of drunken driving, driving under the influence of drugs, possession of cannabis under the age of 21 and failing to reduce speed to avoid a collision, police said. He was also subsequently charged with two counts of unlawful possession of a fraudulent driver’s license, police said.

ILLEGAL GUN: Christian A. Booth, 41, 8800 block of Harlem Avenue, Bridgeview, was charged with aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon Sept 22 in a parking lot in the 16300 block of La Grange Road after officers who followed him recovered a loaded stolen 9 mm handgun on the ground next to his car’s driver’s door, police said. Booth was also accused of driving on a revoked license and drunken driving, police said.

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