Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Police arrested five individuals, one a juvenile, in connection with incidents where school buses were struck by BB shots from BB guns.
Officers were conducting stationary surveillance in the area of Allegheny and Arrowhead Streets on October 5 at 3 p.m. when one officer saw a juvenile walking eastboud on Arrowhead who stopped at the corner of Allegheny and Arrowhead. Shortly thereafter, they saw an 18-year-old walk to the corner of Allegheny and Arrowhead. A silver Chrysler 300 pulled into Arrowhead Court from Allegheny Street. Three individuals exited that vehicle.
Police observed as two of those individuals and the juvenile hid behind a tree as several school buses passed the intersection. One of those who exited the Chrysler was flashing gang signs, according to police. A Rich East school bus stopped at the intersection of Allegheny and Arrowhead Streets and students began to exit the bus. The juvenile and the other two came out from behind the tree and allegedly began to fire a BB gun at the students as they exited the school bus.
At this point, a deputy chief exited his squad car and the three began running toward the parked Chrysler. As they were running, one of the three pulled a black firearm from his waistband, according to police. That firearm was later determined to be a BB gun. This individual got inside the rear driver’s side of the Chrysler and another of the three attempted to drive away from the scene. An officer then activated the emergency lights and siren on his squad car and the Chrysler stopped.
Having no way to determine the nature of the firearm he saw, the officer who saw the firearm exited his squad car and pointed his weapon in the direction of the Chrysler.
The officer did not fire his weapon but requested that additional officers come to assist.
Police recovered the BB gun one of the three was allegedly shooting and placed it into evidence. Police recovered two additional BB guns and a beige paintball gun from the vehicle along with other BB gun paraphernalia, according to police.
All five subjects were transported to the Park Forest Police Department on suspicion of disorderly conduct and mob action.
