2 charged after SWAT team called to Plainfield Township home
BY BRIAN STANLEY bstanley@stmedianetwork.com January 6, 2013 12:16PM
Hank M. Robinson | Supplied photo
Maps
Updated: February 8, 2013 6:20AM
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP — Police say alcohol and gunplay led to a SWAT team surrounding a house for two hours early Sunday.
At 2:36 a.m., neighbors reported hearing shots inside 23542 W. Bentley Drive, which brought Joliet police officers to the scene.
Hank M. Robinson, 25, was at the back of the house when police arrived, but other occupants allegedly slammed the door on them and refused to open it.
“It turns out that property is right on the border of the city and the unincorporated area, which made it our (case),” Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas said.
Deputies surrounded the house until “the watch commander determined the situation warranted calling out the department’s Special Operations Group,” Kaupas said. The SWAT unit arrived around 4:15 a.m. and persuaded the occupants to come outside around 6 a.m.
Six adults and one child had been inside the house and there were no injuries. A .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun was found inside.
“Interviews showed this was not an argument but an alcohol-related incident,” Kaupas said.
Robinson was booked into the county jail on charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
On April 7, 2010, state police pulled Robinson over near Interstates 80 and 55 and found a cash register and money drawers in his backseat while a break-in was being reported at a salon on Jefferson Street.
Robinson admitted to 14 area burglaries during a four-month spree. He and his accomplices used a rock or brick from the parking lot to smash a window or glass door at hair salons, nail salons, auto parts stores and tobacco shops.
Robinson was sentenced to five years in prison and released from the Sheridan Correctional Center in April. He also served a year for vandalism in Will County in 2006.
Carmen R. Nero, 33, of 2819 Warren Dorris Drive, was booked into the county jail on charges of reckless discharge of a firearm and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
In Sept. 2000, Nero was reportedly driving a Camaro near Scott and Jackson streets in Joliet when he drifted into another lane. A honking horn allegedly angered Nero’s passenger to scream obscenities and “flip off” another driver — who turned out to be the then-director of the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad.
Nero was charged with improper lane usage and unlawful use of a weapon after a set of brass knuckles were found in the Camaro, reports said. His passenger was not cited.
Three years earlier Nero was charged with “intoxication” after he and two juveniles were seen sniffing paint in a backyard.
