Montgomery officials seek more data on incidents requiring police response at apartment complex following shooting death

The Montgomery Village Board wants more information on the number and nature of police calls to the Montgomery Place apartment complex following what police say was a homicide at the complex.

Police Chief Phil Smith responded affirmatively to Trustee Tom Betsinger’s request for information on calls for police service to the complex during a village board meeting Sept. 26 at Village Hall.

Betsinger asked specifically for data relating to complaints and what the police response has been to date at the complex located in the 1000 block of Reading Drive, just north of Route 30 on the village’s far east side.

Earlier during the meeting, Nikole Torres-Turnage told the board and village staff of a series of incidents at Montgomery Place that required a police response prior to the shooting death of 42 year-old Joshua Correa in his apartment at the complex Sept. 19. Police, along with the Kendall County Major Crimes Task Force, are continuing their investigation of the case as a homicide.

Torres-Turnage said the prior incidents included a rash of catalytic converter thefts from vehicles parked at the complex over the winter, domestic incidents and fights.

Torres-Turnage urged the board to hold the apartment complex’s management company accountable for better security in the complex.

Reading from a prepared statement as several of her neighbors from the complex looked on, Torres-Turnage said, “I’m here to express my sincere dismay in the village for allowing a large development like this to be in built, but the management company not be held accountable in any way for resident safety and well-being. The complex has given the village a black eye, one that I fear will only get worse if this kind of crime without intervention continues.”

Village President Matt Brolley told Torres-Turnage and the other residents that village officials can’t comment on the status of the police investigation into the murder.

Brolley, however, said he and other officials are concerned about conditions at the complex just as they are anywhere else in the village.

Brolley asked the residents to provide their contact information to Chief Smith “as we look to make this (apartment complex) exactly what you thought it would be: a wonderful development out there.”

In a related matter, Trustee Matt Bauman thanked Torres-Turnage and the other Montgomery Place residents for attending the meeting and told his board colleagues he plans to propose the board pass a resolution in opposition to the Illinois SAFE-T Act, which abolishes cash bail across the state effective Jan. 1. Under the SAFE-T Act defendants can only be detained in pretrial confinement when prosecutors prove to a judge that the defendant is a flight risk or “poses a specific, real, and present threat to any person or the community.”

Bauman explained he has some concerns with how the SAFE-T Act could affect police response to incidents at the complex and at other locations in the village.

“This is a conversation I want to have at another board meeting, but it is something I would strongly support in a resolution,” Bauman said.

Trustee Steve Jungermann and Doug Marecek both voiced agreement with Bauman.