A DuPage County judge has ordered a 20-year-old Chicago man held without bond after police say he led officers on a high-speed chase through Villa Park at more than 107 mph, with a loaded handgun on the driver's seat and a juvenile among five people in the vehicle. Don Williams Jr. now faces felony weapons and fleeing charges stemming from the pursuit, which stretched from a botched traffic stop near Route 83 and St. Charles Road onto eastbound I-290 before ending in a crash.
According to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, Villa Park police tried to pull Williams over on Sunday in connection with a suspected earlier felony involving illegally tinted windows and improper lane usage. Instead of stopping, Williams allegedly sped off once the officer got out of the squad car, hitting more than 107 mph in a 55-mph zone near Roosevelt Road and York Street before merging onto eastbound I-290, per the same account.
The pursuit drew in a wide swath of west suburban law enforcement. Villa Park police coordinated with the Oak Brook, Elmhurst, Hillside, Darien and Wood Dale police departments, with the latter two contributing K-9 units, the office says. Oak Brook officers ultimately deployed spike strips on the highway, deflating two of the vehicle's tires — but prosecutors say Williams kept driving at 65 to 70 mph on the flattened tires before crashing into a guardrail.
Five People, Including a Juvenile, Scattered on Foot
After the crash, Williams and four other people in the vehicle fled on foot, according to the state's attorney's office. Villa Park Police Chief Todd Kubish reported that a juvenile and other passengers had been riding along during the chase. Law enforcement ultimately apprehended all five individuals, taking Williams into custody following a brief foot pursuit.
Inside the car, officers say they recovered a loaded Glock handgun with a 28-round extended magazine sitting on the driver's seat, along with a separate extended magazine on the backseat. Under the Giffords Law Center, Illinois' Protect Illinois Communities Act, enacted in January 2023, bars handgun magazines that hold more than 15 rounds — meaning the 28-round magazine described in the complaint would qualify as a prohibited large-capacity device under state law.
Kubish said the incident endangered the public, responding officers, and the passengers riding along with Williams. DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said no one was injured in the chase and crash, and he thanked the Villa Park, Oak Brook, Elmhurst, Hillside, and Darien and Wood Dale K-9 units, along with Assistant State's Attorneys Sandi Tanoue and Michael Pingaj, for their work on the case.
Felony Charges and a Detention Order
Williams, who lives in the 1100 block of South Hamilton Avenue in Chicago, is charged with one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, a Class 2 felony, along with a separate count of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and one count of aggravated fleeing and eluding, a Class 4 felony. Under Illinois statute 625 ILCS 5/11-204.1, aggravated fleeing and eluding at 21 mph or more over the posted limit is a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years in prison, a fine up to $25,000, and mandatory license revocation, according to Phil Haddad Law.
The weapons charge carries its own steep exposure. Under 720 ILCS 5/24-1.1, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is elevated from a Class 3 to a Class 2 felony — punishable by three to 14 years in prison — if the offender has a prior forcible felony conviction, a prior gun conviction, or was on supervised release at the time, per Hartsfield Law. The dossier does not specify which of those enhancing factors, if any, applies in Williams' case.
Judge Joshua Dieden granted the state's motion to detain Williams pretrial, a decision announced jointly by Kubish and Berlin. Under the Pretrial Fairness Act provisions of the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail statewide in September 2023, prosecutors must prove by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant poses a specific threat to public safety or is a willful flight risk before a judge can order detention, according to Pissetzky Law LLC. Williams is next due in court on September 14 before Judge Ann Celine O'Hallaren Walsh.
Part of a Broader DuPage Crackdown
Berlin said DuPage County has zero tolerance for people who endanger the public while trying to outrun police. The complaint against Williams contains only charges and is not proof of guilt; he is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, with the government bearing the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is far from an isolated case in the county. Berlin has previously pointed to a 159% jump in fleeing and eluding cases in DuPage County between 2020 and 2023, from 158 to 409 cases, prompting agencies to lean on coordinated tactics like highway spike strips. In April, DuPage prosecutors won a similar pretrial detention order against a 36-year-old Chicago felon who led Lisle and Downers Grove police on a chase while carrying a loaded handgun, a case that ended with a crash into a streetlight and a recovered .38-caliber revolver.
The same spike-strip strategy used against Williams' vehicle on I-290 has been deployed before in the corridor. In March 2025, multi-agency suburban police used tire-deflation strips near Berkeley to stop a 28-year-old Chicago driver fleeing at 113 mph, according to Cardinal News; that chase ended with a foot pursuit and a discarded handgun. Statewide, research from Loyola University Chicago's Center for Criminal Justice found that prison sentences for illegal firearm possession in Illinois rose 57% between 2019 and 2023, hitting a record 3,342 sentences in the latter year. Open questions in Williams' case include the specifics of his prior felony record, which would determine his exact sentencing exposure, and whether the four other people found in the vehicle — including the juvenile passenger — will face any charges of their own.
