21-Hour Standoff in Black Harvey, IL, Ends with Rescue of Hostages, and Arrest of Raceless, Faceless, Nameless Robber-Kidnappers

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.
 

Harvey hostages freed: “The kids, they looked shaken”
By Adam Sege and Meredith Rodriguez
Chicago Tribune

One by one Wednesday morning, four hostages held in a home in Harvey were led out by officers in SWAT gear. First the two girls, 6 and 12, the younger covering her head with her hands. Then the two women, their arms raised.

“One lady was crying,” said Jean Johnson, 56, who lives nearby. “The kids, they looked shaken.”


Cook County Sheriff discusses the tactics taken by law enforcement in the Harvey hostages rescue.

The rescue ended a nearly 21-hour standoff that began around 1 p.m. Tuesday when police were called to a report of a break-in at a house at 147th Street and Robey Avenue. When officers arrived, there was an exchange of gunfire with two suspected robbers, and two officers were wounded, one grazed in the arm, the other hit in the elbow.

The two suspects then took six young children and two women hostage, releasing four boys during the day and keeping the four others until a SWAT team stormed the home around 9:20 a.m.

Officers took down the front door and found the hostages and the two men on the second floor, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. The suspects fired twice at the officers, but then were arrested, and the hostages taken to safety, authorities said.

Dart said authorities decided to enter the home when they saw “there was no end in sight” to the standoff and threats were being made against the women and children.
“There was a lot of tension,” he said.

Everyone involved, including the two suspects, appeared unhurt, but the released women “were crying hysterically,” Dart said. “They haven't been harmed, but they're very traumatized.”

Four boys between the ages of 1 and 11 were released unharmed throughout the day Tuesday, authorities said.


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The two men repeatedly asked for a car during negotiations and at one point freed one of the children in exchange for cigarettes, a Cook County sheriff's spokesman said.

Officials said they were unaware of any relationship between the hostages and the men, whom Dart wouldn't identify at a Wednesday night news conference, other than to say they have criminal histories and were on parole.
 

cComments
• As good of an end result as was possible, but it took over 200 cops to get the result. Add that cost to the Ferguson mess and see how much two criminals cost the taxpayers SO FAR.
Suburb Guy
at 3:31 PM August 20, 2014
 

When the women and children were first taken hostage, police evacuated about 100 people on the block, and the Cook County sheriff's police hostage and barricade team was called to the scene, along with the Illinois State Police SWAT team and officers from more than two dozen jurisdictions. Three helicopters were deployed.

The Rosa L. Parks Middle School across the street was closed Wednesday as a precaution, town officials said.

A neighbor, Precious Brown, 24, said the family in the house has been in the neighborhood a little more than two years. The incident, she said, made her feel unsafe.

“It has always been a quiet neighborhood,” Brown said. “There has never been drama over here.”


Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart gives an update to the media on the hostage situation in Harvey, Illinois.

Tribune photographer John Kim and reporters Michelle Manchir, Rosemary Regina Sobol, Bonnie Miller Rubin, Carlos Sadovi and Jeremy Gorner and freelance reporter Dennis Sullivan contributed.
mmrodriguez@tribune.com
asege@tribune.com