Murder Suspect in Standoff Arrested By Police
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Published : Wednesday, 23 Sep 2009, 4:17 AM CDT
A barricade situation at a Near West Side veterans' hospital ended peacefully Wednesday morning more than six hours after a person of interest in a double-murder allegedly fired a shot and holed himself up in the emergency room.
The man who fired the shot and then holed himself up at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center at 820 S. Damen Ave. decided after hours of negotiation that it was in his best interest to surrender about 9 a.m., according to Harrison Area Police Deputy Chief Wayne Gulliford.
Negotiations were not face-to-face, Gulliford said. SWAT officers negotiated with the man through the doors of an ER exam room where he had barricaded himself.
Bobby Freeman, an admission clerk at the medical center, said a man walked into the facility about 1:20 a.m. and stood behind a patient who was being admitted.
The man asked for the location of the washroom and told Freeman he wanted to see a doctor, the clerk said.
The man went into the washroom, came out and walked into the emergency room, where he fired a shot into the ceiling and pointed a gun to his head, Freeman said.
Freeman said the man said, “I’m not going to shoot, I just want some help.”
The man allegedly told a medical technician he had just killed his parents, Freeman related.
A law enforcement source said the man, 53-year-old Kermit Washington, is the son of an elderly couple found murdered Tuesday night in their Little Village home. Washington is being called a “person of interest” in the killings, the source said.
Police at the scene were not confirming the man’s identity.
Monroe District police Sgt. Edward Schwarz said hospital staff notified police of the shooting, which occurred inside one of the ER rooms.
Gulliford said at a Wednesday morning press conference that SWAT Team officers had contained the man to a room and he did not have any hostages.
“The only people in the ER are the subject and the police officers,” Gulliford said. The hospital remained open for business.
Police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines said SWAT officers negotiated with the man in a number of ways, including via phone. News Affairs Lt. Maureen Biggane said SWAT officers were in close proximity to the man, but were not talking to face-to-face.
Gaines said 25 SWAT officers and six negotiators were on the scene. The negotiators rotated talking to the man, he said.
The hospital was not evacuated, and nobody inside was ever in danger, according to the deputy chief.
Initially, SWAT officers could be seen stationed outside a propped-open first-floor door at a handicapped entrance near their large, tank-like truck nicknamed “The War Wagon.”
Schwarz said both the SWAT Team and the suspect had long-range weapons.
University of Illinois at Chicago junior Tom Mitrosz said he heard sirens and saw police arrive at the hospital from his apartment in the 800 block of South Damen.
“It’s amazing, I just moved in about a month ago,” Mitrosz told the media. “I could not expect such an incident to happen.”
Mitrosz, who studies criminology and law, said he went outside to see what was happening and heard an apparent gunshot from the area police were surrounding. The shot prompted police to move more aggressively, he said.
Gaines said the only shot fired was the initial shot that prompted the police response.
In the Little Village incident, a man flagged down police about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday and told officers his parents were not answering the door of their home at 2222 S. Kildare, according to Gaines, who was citing preliminary information.
When officers gained entry into the home, the couple was found dead in the kitchen, Gaines said.
Joe Washington, 79, and Johnnie Washington, 77, were found dead in the home with gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, which said autopsies are scheduled for later Wednesday.
Kermit Washington lived in the home with his parents or with his girlfriend in the north suburbs, the source said. He was not home when police found the couple dead.e.
Harrison Area detectives are investigating.
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