Police: Wilmington officers shoot masked, armed man
By Bob Okon bokon@stmedianetwork.com January 30, 2012 2:30PM
State police and Will County sheriff's personnel investigate near Mae Street and Kahler Road in Wilmington, Ill., where Wilmington police shot and apprehended an alleged armed man Monday, January 30, 2012. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 1, 2012 9:45AM
WILMINGTON — What sounded like the potential start of a shooting spree ended Monday afternoon when police shot a rifle out of the hands of a masked man who threatened “to wreak terror on this earth,” authorities said.
Nathan Reeves, 28, of Wilmington was apprehended and taken to Provena St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee. Police said his injuries weren’t life-threatening.
What type of weapon Reeves was carrying was unclear as of Monday night. Police said it appeared he had an AK-47, but it may have been an airsoft gun, a look-alike weapon that fires nonlethal pellets.
The incident stirred up the entire city of Wilmington and filled a quiet neighborhood with police from more departments than residents could count.
Parents like John Kalush were notified that Wilmington’s schools had been locked down.
“I was up in my apartment,” Kalush said. “I just saw all the police flying by — Channahon, Grundy County, Will County, Wilmington.”
Kalush lives along East Kahler Road, where police first spotted Reeves wearing a ski mask and carrying a weapon.
Before his walk, Reeves reportedly made the eerie call to a police dispatcher at 12:19 p.m., saying he had a gun and wanted “to wreak terror on this earth.”
Wilmington police Chief Darin Plotts said Reeves lived in an apartment building on East Kahler Road, near where he was wounded in the showdown with police.
Wilmington police were first on the scene.
“The officer saw him walking down the road carrying what looked like an AK-47 and (wearing) a face mask,” Plotts said. “The officer told him to stop, and he took off across the street.”
Reeves reportedly ran from the fairly busy arterial street into a residential neighborhood between Kahler Road and a section of town that contains three schools — Wilmington High School, Wilmington Middle School and LJ Stevens Intermediate School.
But he didn’t get far.
Police said he was chased across Mae Street and into the backyard of a house in the 900 block of Luther Drive.
George Cherveny said he could see what was going on from his Mae Street house.
“I did see him in the backyard,” Cherveny said. “He had a ski mask on, and he was a pretty big-sized feller.”
By that time, other police were arriving.
When a sheriff’s deputy crossed in front of his Luther Drive home, resident Butch Parkman asked what was going on.
“He said, ‘The best thing you can do is get inside,’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir,’” Parkman recounted. “I got on my front step, and I heard two shots. I got in the house quick.”
Plotts said Wilmington officers — Officer Rhonda Thomas and Sgt. Mike Boyle — opened fire when the suspect rejected numerous demands to drop the weapon, instead pointing it at police. He was struck in the hand. It was not clear Monday night whose shot hit the suspect.
Neighbors said they heard the suspect dropped the gun when he was shot.
“We’ve got some sharpshooters in our Wilmington police department,” said Don Butler, one of the neighbors gathered to watched the aftermath.
Because Wilmington officers shot the suspect, the investigation of the incident has been turned over to the Will County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s spokesman Ken Kaupas said it was unclear Monday night what kind of weapon Reeves was carrying.
The weapon was believed to be an AK-47, but “now, I’m getting some reports that this was an airsoft AK-47 look-alike weapon.”
Because of the possible threat, all four schools in Wilmington School District were on lockdown from 12:32 to 1:32 p.m., Superintendent Jay Plese said. No one entered or left the schools during that time, and students and staff who were off campus were told not to return, he added.
Plotts commended his officers and Western Will County Communications Center, the 911 dispatch center that took the gunman’s call and dispatched so many police departments to the scene.
Seeing so many police made Darlene Cherveny feel better, even though she was too scared to go to the window of her Mae Street home while listening to what was happening on her police scanner.
“The response from the police officers was tremendous,” Cherveny said. “I felt very secure after I saw all those police.”
Cindy Wojdyla Cain
contributed to this story.
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