Walked outside and stepped right into a police manhunt tonight!

[Melensdad]

Decided to leave the fencing club early tonight. Stepped out the doors of our building and walked right into 2 SWAT officers carrying AR15s.

I had been outside at my car a few minutes earlier, saw a half dozen squads with lights flashing about 150 yards away at the main road, just assumed it was an accident. But then as I came back from the parking lot I saw an officer across the pond shining a flashlight into the cattails.

So the 2 SWAT officers asked who was in the building, I told them the club members were downstairs. They asked me a few other questions, then asked me to lock the building. All I was able to figure out is they were looking for some black guys. So I went back in, locked the door behind me, and went to tell the club members we all had to leave in a group at closing.

Went out in a group about 30 minutes later, more squads, more officers, helicopter overhead. We were escorted to our cars and left.

Got in touch with a buddy who has inside information (can't disclose how/why). Was told that several misguided inner city types were involved in an attempted armed car jacking. Apparently unsuccessful.

Turns out 1 was caught right next door to our building on the north side. 1 was chased right next to our building on the east side (where I walked out). 2 are still on the loose. Another 1 may or may not exist??? So 4 or 5 total.

 

[leadarrows]

I love living in the country,

 

[FrancSevin]

Decided to leave the fencing club early tonight. Stepped out the doors of our building and walked right into 2 SWAT officers carrying AR15s.

I had been outside at my car a few minutes earlier, saw a half dozen squads with lights flashing about 150 yards away at the main road, just assumed it was an accident. But then as I came back from the parking lot I saw an officer across the pond shining a flashlight into the cattails.

So the 2 SWAT officers asked who was in the building, I told them the club members were downstairs. They asked me a few other questions, then asked me to lock the building. All I was able to figure out is they were looking for some black guys. So I went back in, locked the door behind me, and went to tell the club members we all had to leave in a group at closing.

Went out in a group about 30 minutes later, more squads, more officers, helicopter overhead. We were escorted to our cars and left.

Got in touch with a buddy who has inside information (can't disclose how/why). Was told that several misguided inner city types were involved in an attempted armed car jacking. Apparently unsuccessful.

Turns out 1 was caught right next door to our building on the north side. 1 was chased right next to our building on the east side (where I walked out). 2 are still on the loose. Another 1 may or may not exist??? So 4 or 5 total.

Holy cow Batman! I'll bet that was exciting.
A change of underwear maybe?

 

[Melensdad]

Holy cow Batman! I'll bet that was exciting.
A change of underwear maybe?

No actually it was pretty laid back and casual instead of hectic, no feeling of fear or panic. There were so many officers scattered around the area. Sheriff across the small pond, 4 squads about 100' to my left. Out at the main road at least a half dozen more. And cops on foot everywhere. Just didn't feel unsafe at all. In retrospect, after finding out wht was going on, probably should have been hiding in the basement

Contact a guy in my shooting group who is authorized to monitor such things (I won't say what department/title) and found out he was monitoring everything from home. Here is what I got from him:

attempted carjacking of some sort where a firearm was pressed into someone's face while they were in their vehicle ... unknown where this took place (St John? Cedar Lake?) ... I mention Cedar Lake because at some point early on there was mention of a Cedar Lake Cop having a firearm pointed at them ... was it an off duty cop that they attempted to carjack? who knows ... was it an off duty Cedar Lake cop in St. John? ... anyway ...

it all ends up in St John with SJPD looking for anywhere from two to four black subjects (one possibly female) ... throughout the last hour and a half, they had reliable reports from citizens of the subjects being in Stracks, Target, behind Aldi/Tractor Supply Co. ... during one point, the entire SJPD was armed with rifles and on foot ... one perp was caught at the abandoned Car Wash ... one was sighted on foot heading south on 41 ... one entered the Hammond Clinic (across from Stracks) and then left north and was again sighted around the Chase bank and was subsequently caught at Kmart ... it sounded like they gave the all clear at this time and thought there were only two subjects

Questioning of the captured subjects and witnesses/victim led to the rest of the story as they know it now ... there were possibly two more subjects in a getaway car waiting behind the Aldi/Tractor Supply Co. ... canine units that backtracked from the captured subjects converged at the parking lot behind Aldi ... no vehicle ... no one there ... they started tracking in a different direction ...

In the last minute, they just reported a sighting of a subject heading south "on 41" ... from the discussion, it sounded like he was well off the road in the trees or grass ... they also just advised all units that they did not recover a weapon from the captured subjects and that one or both of the ones still at large may be armed with semi-auto handguns ... one of them has an "extended magazine."

that's all I have for now.

I bolded a section there because our fencing club is right between Chase Bank and Kmart. Kmart is next door to the North side, Chase Bank is next door to East side. Both are about 100' to 150' away from the door I exited. The Hammond Clinic is a 1/2 mile straight south, but I wonder if the report is mistaken because the Community Outreach Clinic is directly south of our fencing club & the Chase Bank across the parking lot.

A short while later he sent me this information:

wow ... how the story evolves ... sounds like the cops are still trying to get the story straight from all the involved agencies ...

it now sounds like they might have tried to (or actually did) rob the Verizon store in town ... they are talking about recovering phones (near Aldi) that were discarded ... they might have tried to carjack someone as part of their weird plan to get away >>> rob store, car jack a vehicle for getaway so everyone sees them leaving in that car, accomplices in chase vehicle waiting behind Aldi then follow them, they dump vehicle and leave in their getaway car ...

That Verizon store in due east of the fencing club door about 300' away, it is on the other side of the Chase Bank, but also across the main road from Chase.

 

[Danang Sailor]

Exciting times in the Big City, eh?

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

now for the funny stuff.Bob in the interest of not showing any profiling even though you were white and an older gentleman, I assume the cops put you in a stress position frisked you ,and checked your ID before releasing you to go back into the building.

 

[Melensdad]

now for the funny stuff.Bob in the interest of not showing any profiling even though you were white and an older gentleman, I assume the cops put you in a stress position frisked you ,and checked your ID before releasing you to go back into the building.

Yup, when you look like an old, white, grey haired version of Andy Hardy you get used to being "profiled" as a thug, ne're-do'ell, vagrant and terrorist all the time

But the club is in an upscale community on the edge of suburbia, used to be a rural town but suburbia has grown and it turned into a bedroom community for professionals, and the police didn't even blink an eye to the fact that I had a sidearm ... so apparently the cops are holdovers from when it was still a rural community