A woman is dead and a man was wounded after a Saturday evening shooting in Beecher that ended with a barricaded suspect in custody. The standoff stretched for hours in the 300 block of Waterford Lane, near Somerset Drive, before a SWAT team forced its way in.
Beecher police were called at 5:07 p.m. on Nov. 14 for a report of shots fired in that area, according to Shaw Local. ABC7 Chicago placed the start of the scene at about 5 p.m. The Will County Sheriff's Office SWAT unit was requested around 6 p.m. to help with a barricaded suspect, Country Herald reported.
Hours outside a locked house
Officers first found a man suffering several gunshot wounds. The Beecher Fire Protection District took him to an area hospital, Shaw Local reported. An armed man had barricaded himself inside the Waterford Lane home, and police spent hours trying to negotiate before going in, ABC7 said.
During the standoff he fired toward officers. No officers were injured. The county's armored rescue vehicle was hit, Shaw Local reported. After the negotiations failed to end the standoff, SWAT broke windows, deployed 40 mm tear gas rounds, entered, and took him into custody.
While that was still unfolding, NBC Chicago reported that residents in part of Beecher were urged to stay indoors amid the investigation.
A woman found inside
What officers found after the entry is the part of the night that accounts do not describe the same way. ABC7 reported that officers found the suspect inside with a woman who had also been shot, and that she later died of her injuries. FOX 32 Chicago, drawing on information from the Will County Sheriff's Office, reported that officers found a woman dead inside of an apparent gunshot wound.
Earlier, authorities believed someone had died inside the home, FOX 32 reported. A police posting neither confirmed nor denied that belief. Beecher police believed the wounded man outside had multiple gunshot wounds. Authorities had not released the victims' names or ages as of ABC7's report, and the woman's identity had not been released.
Whether the suspect himself was hurt is also unsettled in the reporting. ABC7 said police did not specify whether or how he was injured. Country Herald reported that the suspect was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of injuries around 9:30 p.m. FOX 32 likewise reported that a man was transported to a nearby hospital for injuries around that time. Shaw Local identified the 9:30 p.m. patient as the suspect, who had been taken into custody; the wounded male victim had already been transported to an area hospital.
What investigators have not said
The Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force was contacted and will investigate the incident, Shaw Local reported. According to the sheriff's office, Beecher police and the task force will handle further updates. As of Country Herald's Nov. 15 report, authorities had not announced specific criminal charges. The suspect's identity had not been disclosed as of Country Herald's Nov. 15 report.
The next public accounting, if it comes, will have to come from Beecher police or the task force: who was shot, how the woman died, and what charges, if any, follow the arrest.
