2 Skokie police officers injured when burglary leads to crash, arrests

A group attempted to break into a Skokie business early Thursday morning before crashing a stolen car into a police cruiser and fleeing on foot, according to the Skokie Police Department.

Two officers reportedly were injured during the encounter, which began after a white sedan parked outside Austin Liquors, 3505 Dempster St., at 3:28 a.m. Thursday, May 7, as shown in surveillance footage reviewed by The Record.

The footage, which the store allowed The Record to view, shows four people wearing hooded jackets and masks exiting the car, and one then uses a sledgehammer to break the glass of one of the store’s front doors.

The damage to the front door triggered the closed store’s “glass-break alarm” and notified Skokie police, according to a Skokie PD news release.

The offenders by 3:30 a.m. entered the store and began climbing over counters to grab bottles of alcohol, according to the footage.

Two offenders are shown handing another outside the store bottles and cases of alcohol, emptying the store’s change drawer and at one point even filling a garbage can with various items later stuffed in the car’s trunk.

The group returned to the car and began fleeing west on Dempster Avenue, the footage shows.

But just after car peeled out onto Dempster Avenue, according to the video, it collided head on with one of the three Skokie police squad cars that responded to the scene at 3:35 a.m.

A Skokie police sergeant sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the crash, the department’s release says.

Following the crash, the surveillance footage shows multiple suspects exiting their car and fleeing on foot, while others remained in the car, which was driven west on Dempster, out of view of the liquor store’s surveillance cameras.

While attempting to apprehend one of the suspects who fled on foot, another Skokie police sergeant reportedly sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The suspects then exited their white vehicle and fled on foot, and while attempting to take one into custody, another Skokie police sergeant reportedly sustained non-life-threatening injuries. 

Skokie police ultimately arrested three suspects — two juveniles and one adult and all Chicago residents — and transported them to the Skokie Police Department, according to the release.

Two suspects reportedly escaped on foot.

Neighboring law enforcement agencies, with a drone and K-9 unit, assisted Skokie police in searching for the individuals, but police determined after an “extensive search” that the two suspects were no longer in the vicinity, the release says. 

Police reportedly recovered a firearm from the suspects’ vehicle and later determined that both the firearm and the white vehicle reportedly were stolen out of Chicago.

Both injured sergeants were transported to local hospitals, where they received medical treatment, the release says. 

The Skokie Police Department’s investigation into the incident is ongoing.

The Skokie Police Department encouraged individuals with information about the incident to contact Skokie police at (847) 982-5900 or the 24-hour Skokie Crime Tip Hotline at 847/933-TIPS (8477).

Text-A-Tip is available 24 hours a day by texting “Skokie” and your tip to 266787.

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