Two arrested, gun recovered after multi-vehicle crash in Palatine
PALATINE, Ill. — At least two people were taken into police custody and a gun was recovered following a multi-vehicle crash that closed down a major artery in northwest suburban Palatine on Thursday morning.
According to witnesses, officers were chasing a vehicle that then crashed into several cars at North Rand Road and North Winslowe Drive just before 11 a.m.
“We basically heard police, well a lot of police sirens and a lot of people coming outside,” said Eryk Bosak of Tinting Chicago at 1402 N. Rand Rd. “I seen smoke and was like, ‘What happened here?'”
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Surveillance video recorded from his business showed a black Honda CR-V swerve to avoid one vehicle and rear-end a gold GMC Tahoe, which then hit two cars in front of it. The video shows a man get out of the CR-V, run through Bosak’s parking lot and into the neighboring R&M Performance Auto Care shop.
A police vehicle with its lights on comes into the video frame seconds behind the crash.
“I was just working on the car and then I kind of saw him from the middle of the parking lot, just running in here, and then he just kind of just flew right past the car into the back room. Then he came right back through here,” employee Rei Nati told WGN. “I kind of just didn’t want anything to do with it because I’m sure people would try to tackle him or something, and I’m like, uh it’s not really worth your life.”
Nati said he ran outside to alert police that the man from the vehicle was inside. He said six officers went in and took the suspect out in handcuffs. The driver of the Honda CR-V was loaded into an ambulance and also taken into custody. Nati said officers spent “an hour or two” looking for possible weapons.
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Video from WGN’s SkyCam 9 showed an officer place what appears to be an extended clip and handgun removed from the CR-V into a white evidence box.
In an evening statement, police said four adults were taken to area hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening: a 20-year-old man and a 22-year-old man from the Honda CR-V and a 53-year-old woman and 59-year-old woman who were in the GMC Tahoe.
North Rand Road between East Dundee Road and Winslowe Drive was closed for about 90 minutes due to the crash. Nearby Palatine High School was briefly placed on a soft lockdown during the police activity.
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