Prosecutors reviewing Will County sheriff’s lieutenant shooting of bank hostage taker

Prosecutors are reviewing a May 10 incident where a Will County sheriff’s lieutenant shot and killed a 65-year-old man who was armed with a gun and took hostages at a Romeoville bank, according to the Illinois State Police.

Gregory Walker, 65, of Crest Hill was identified by the Will County Coroner’s Office as the man who was fatally shot May 10 by a member of the Will County SWAT team after a hostage situation at Fifth Third Bank, 275 S. Weber Road in Romeoville.

On Thursday, Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Delila Garcia said the incident is being reviewed by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Garcia said the case is an “open and active ISP investigation.”

“No other information is available at this time,” Garcia said.

Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said Thursday that the case is under review by the state’s attorney’s office and that the sheriff’s office has not been provided any detailed information about the investigation.

Jungles said Will County Sheriff’s Office Lt. John Allen was the SWAT team member who fired a shot at Walker, who was then taken to a Bolingbrook hospital.

Walker was pronounced dead at 5:32 p.m. May 10, according to the coroner’s office.

The incident first began about 3:40 p.m. May 10, when Romeoville police and then the Will County SWAT team responded to multiple calls of shots fired at Fifth Third Bank.

The callers said there was a man with a gun inside who had taken hostages and demanded that officers respond to the location, according to a news release from the Will County Sheriff’s Office.

Romeoville police officers were the first to respond and they established a perimeter around the bank. The officers were able to communicate with the suspect – later identified as Walker – who agreed to allow the hostages inside the bank to walk out.

None of the hostages were injured during the incident.

Will County SWAT crisis negotiators and tactical team members arrived at the scene. At one point, members of the SWAT team set up in front of the building in an armored rescue vehicle “in anticipation of the suspect exiting,” according to the sheriff’s office release.

As the suspect began to exit the building, Allen fired one round, striking Walker.

Police said Walker did not fire at police.

Usually, the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force, an outside agency comprised of multiple police agencies, investigates police shootings in Will County.

Jungles said the incident was turned over to the Illinois State Police because there were six local agencies involved in the county’s SWAT team response, which precludes members of the task force from any of those agencies conducting the investigation.

After the incident, Sandra Mendoza, one of the hostages, told the Herald-News that Walker directed the hostages to call law enforcement to respond to the bank. Mendoza said she was one of the people who tried to call police. She said she thought it would be better to comply with Walker’s demands.

“We did not know what his intentions were,” Mendoza said. “Obviously, we thought it was a robbery.”

But eventually, Mendoza said, Walker became much calmer and even tried to reassure the hostages that he was not there to hurt them.

Mendoza said Walker also described difficult events in his life, including the passing of his mother. She said Walker explicitly said he wished to die that day.