A pre-dawn police chase that began with two suspicious cars parked along Lake Street in Addison ended in a crash on the Eisenhower Expressway, with five people taken into custody and multiple weapons recovered from the wreckage. Seven people reportedly ran from the crashed vehicle near 25th Avenue, scattering a coordinated law enforcement response across the western suburbs before dawn broke on Thursday.
Addison police officers first spotted the two vehicles in the Lake Street business district at about 4:34 a.m., according to fox32chicago.com. Both cars sped off when officers tried to stop them, and police deflated the tires of one vehicle with a tire-deflation device, forcing its occupants to pile into the second car to keep running. Villa Park police joined the pursuit near North Avenue and Route 83, and officers deployed a second tire-deflation device as the chase continued, according to the seed report from ABC7 Chicago.
Crash on I-290 Scatters Seven Suspects on Foot
The second vehicle eventually eluded Addison officers before crashing on I-290 near 25th Avenue, per the same fox32chicago.com report. Seven people ran from the car after the crash, and a coordinated response from multiple agencies led to five of them being taken into custody. It remains unclear whether the two people who fled were ever located, the station's report notes.
Police believe the occupants of both vehicles were involved in commercial burglaries, according to ABC7 Chicago's reporting. Officers recovered multiple weapons from the crashed car, along with items believed to be connected to the burglary, the station notes. Addison police are leading the ongoing investigation with help from surrounding law enforcement agencies, as reported by fox32chicago.com. No injuries were reported in the incident, per ABC7 Chicago.
Highway Shutdown Snarled Morning Commute
The crash blocked multiple eastbound lanes of I-290 near 25th Avenue, and Illinois State Police temporarily closed the expressway while officers searched for the suspects, causing heavy delays toward Chicago. According to nbcchicago.com, three of four eastbound lanes west of 25th Avenue were shut down during the 5 a.m. hour, and drivers were warned to expect solid traffic back to I-294.
Reports differed on exactly when the Eisenhower fully reopened. ABC7 Chicago reported all lanes were back open by 6:10 a.m., while nbcchicago.com separately reported lanes reopened as of 6:15 a.m., and fox32chicago.com attributed a reopening time of around 6:05 p.m. to Illinois State Police. The discrepancy among the three timestamps was not resolved in any of the available reports.
Pattern of High-Speed Chases in the Suburbs
Thursday's chase echoes other recent pursuits that have rattled through the same stretch of western suburbs. In August, 20-year-old Don Williams Jr. was arrested after allegedly leading suburban police on a chase that reached 107 mph before ending in a foot pursuit on the Eisenhower Expressway, according to cwbchicago.com. In an earlier Addison case, prosecutors said suspects in a gas station robbery drove more than 100 mph at times, drawing a response from 20 police vehicles across multiple jurisdictions, per fox32chicago.com's reporting on that incident.
Addison police said their investigation into Thursday's chase and crash remains active, with assistance from neighboring departments. No further details on charges or the identities of those in custody had been released as of the latest reporting.
