RIVERSIDE – Riverside police have arrested a suspect in a Jan. 26 shooting that occurred on Forest Avenue.
Detectives were leaving the police station Jan. 27 to interview the shooting victim at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood when they spotted the offender walking toward the station. They took him into custody without incident, police said.
The offender told detectives he was on his way to surrender as the pressure was too much on him and he knew he had been identified and was being pursued by Riverside detectives for the shooting, police said.
Riverside patrol officers, detectives and the Major Case Assistance Team (MCAT) worked throughout the weekend on the investigation.
Riverside detectives got a break in the case when they were able to obtain video footage of the drug transaction and shooting. When detectives viewed the video, they recognized the offender from a previous arrest, according to police.
Police are still collecting evidence, searching for the weapon and interviewing witnesses. They have interviewed the victim, who is expected to survive. He is out of surgery and in the intensive care unit with injuries to his abdomen and spleen, according to police.
The shooting was the result of a drug deal gone bad, police said. The victim was in Riverside to purchase marijuana on Forest Avenue when he was shot.
Police officers at 7:01 p.m. Jan. 26 responded to shots fired in the zero to 100 block of Forest Avenue. When officers arrived, they located numerous shell cases in the street in front of the house where the shooting occurred. However, there was no victim at the scene, according to a report.
Several minutes after the shooting was reported, Broadview police were dispatched to a shooting victim in the 2900 block of 13th Avenue, according to the release. The victim was from the Riverside shooting and had driven home from the scene and collapsed, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Riverside police continue to investigate an armed home invasion that occurred Jan. 25.
In that incident, police responded at 1:53 a.m. to an armed home invasion and kidnapping at a residence in the 200 block of West Quincy Street.
When officers arrived, the offenders already had fled and had kidnapped a male in his early 20s from the home.
Police said the incident was not random and the home was targeted.
Three armed men beat the man and his mother, police said. They kidnapped the man at gunpoint and blindfolded him, and also stole a vehicle from the house.
The suspects left in two vehicles, and police spotted one of them in Berwyn, but lost track of it, police said.
The kidnapping victim was later dumped in Chicago in the 4300 block of West 47th Street, and one of the vehicles was recovered. Police are searching for a black Jeep Cherokee with two suspects who are considered armed.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact the Riverside Police Department at 708-447-2127. They also can send an anonymous tip by emailing Det. Sgt. Leo Kotor at lkotor@riverside.il.us