Police remove gunman from Bensenville home

Neighbors were evacuated from their Bensenville homes and several nearby schools were put on lockdown Tuesday after a man fired more than a half-dozen gunshots and barricaded himself in a bedroom, authorities said.

Police Chief Frank Kosman said authorities received a 911 call reporting shots fired from the house on the 200 block of South Mason about 10:45 a.m. Officers arriving on the scene were met by a group of people saying they had a relative inside the house.

Jose Bailon, 36, was alone in the house but was barricaded in an upstairs bedroom, Kosman said. Roughly 20 officers, including negotiators and a SWAT team from the DuPage sheriff's office, were called to the scene.

“We spoke to him until he stopped communications with us around 2 p.m.,” Kosman said. “Around 2:30, we introduced tear gas and he left the bedroom and was taken into custody unarmed.”

Bailon was hosed down with water to relieve the effects of the tear gas before being taken in an ambulance to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated Tuesday afternoon. Kosman said formal charges are pending.

No one else was injured.

“Our detectives are talking to the other family members and coming up with more of an account of what happened,” Kosman said. “According to the family members he was agitated and angry, but we don't know what the reason was.”

Roughly seven shots were fired inside the house and some rounds hit the house immediately to the north, Kosman said. Those neighbors were evacuated from their home, while other neighbors on the block were advised to stay inside.

Schools in Bensenville Elementary District 2 remained on various stages of lockdown until about 1 p.m. Tuesday, with some precautions continuing until students left around 3:30 p.m.

District 2 spokeswoman Terry Ryan said police called school officials about 10:45 a.m. and advised them to implement the lockdown.

Ryan said the two schools closest the scene — Tioga at 212 W. Memorial and Chippewa at 322 S. York Road — were on a hard lockdown, which means the lights were turned off, students and staff were kept away from windows and no one was allowed in or out of the building.

Other schools in the district were on a soft lockdown, which means no one was allowed in or out of the buildings.

Ryan said the district activated its emergency phone blast to inform parents of the situation. Kosman said buses were redirected to avoid the scene.