Chase ends in two arrests in Waukegan

Waukegan police were involved in a footchase with a 16-year-old suspected gang member this week who fled from a traffic stop, jumped over a fence, cut his hand on barbed wire and entered a house, authorities said Friday.

Officers from the police department’s Gang Intelligence Unit pulled over a car just before 3 p.m. Tuesday near Washington Street and Edison Court for loud music. The 16-year-old boy, whose name was not released, exited the passenger side with a .38-caliber handgun, dropped it, then picked it up and ran, police said.

According to a police, the teen threw the gun as he hopped over a fence on the 1000 block of Edison, then entered a house on the 1000 block of North Jackson Street. He told the residents that he had just been stabbed, and they immediately left the house and met with nearby police officers.

Police said they surrounded the house and apprehended the teen inside. They recovered the gun and a bag of ammunition.

The car’s driver, Bernard Hodges, 18, of the 2100 block of Ash Street, fled from the traffic stop, police said. The 16-year-old later told police that Hodges handed him the handgun and told him to run, police said.

Hodges, who police say is also a gang member and was on parole for a 2011 shooting, was arrested a day later.

Both were charged with unlawful use of a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and defacing a firearm.

Hodges was also charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, fleeing and eluding police, and loud music.

The 16-year-old boy was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, criminal trespass to a residence, and having no FOID card.

Hodges is being held on $100,000 bail at the Lake County jail.

The boy was transferred to the Juvenile Detention Center in Vernon Hills.