March 25, 2007, 10 PM
The 911 board lit up with calls about a man standing in the middle of the Ogden/Oak Park Avenue intersection, causing cars to swerve to avoid him as he yelled gang slogans and made gang hand signals at passing cars and people. The man turned out to be a 17-year-old Lyons boy wearing jeans, a black baseball cap and no shirt. When police arrived they recognized him as a known gang member, and told him to put his hands on the hood of the squad car. At this, the boy threw down a plastic 375 ml bottle of Smirnoff vodka, now three-quarters empty. Both his breath and the rest of him smelled of alcohol; he wobbled when asked to stand still. Police called the boy’s dad, who responded, "And he was doing so good, too, staying out of trouble."
Once in the Berwyn lockup, the teen was verbally abusive to other prisoners. Asked for his address, he told police, "I’m not telling you shit." In his cell, the teen banged his hands against the door, yelling "I know my rights! I wanna call my dad! F---- the Berwyn police," and more in that vein. After carrying on this way for some time, the teen yelled "I need medical! I broke my hand!" The booking officer looked in his cell and saw blood on his hand, so the boy was taken to MacNeal Hospital. Seven other prisoners stated they had heard him screaming, using racial epithets, cursing, pounding on his door and yelling "I want my mom!"
