Fingernail gives police clue needed to break case
Deerfield police had a real nail-biter on their hands in the case of a bank robbery last September.
A nail-breaker, actually.
Deputy Police Chief Richard Wilk said this week that an arrest warrant has been issued for a man already doing time in a downstate prison who is believed to be one of the men who held up the Centrust Bank on Sept. 15, 2007.
Wilk said the break in the case came during the robbery, when Jermaine Redmond chipped off a fingernail in front of the teller he was robbing.
Two men entered the bank at 400 Lake Cook Road and used plastic handcuffs to restrain the employees and customers.
But a teller was watching when one of the men broke a fingernail as he was scooping up the cash and even saw where the nail fell on the floor.
"I was at the scene when a patrolman told me about it and I said, 'Please let that fingernail still be on the floor,'" Wilk said. "We found it, bagged it and sent it to the lab."
DNA testing came up with a profile and a check of the state's database came up with Redmond, who is doing a three-year stint for auto theft in Western Illinois Correctional Center that was imposed after the robbery.
Wilk said Redmond is currently charged with armed robbery, but other charges are possible.
Help wanted: Lake County sheriff's police are asking for the public's assistance in locating the suspects in the shooting and wounding of two people in an attempted armed robbery.
On Dec. 9, two employees of the Silo Restaurant near Lake Bluff were wounded when Charles Knight of Chicago and another man who has not been identified tried to rob the establishment and its customers, police said.
Sgt. Christopher Thompson said Knight, who is the suspected gunman, is of particular interest to authorities because he is also wanted for the 2005 shooting death of a Rockford man.
"This person is extremely dangerous and we need to get him off the streets," Thompson said. "The public has been able to provide us information to make arrests in the past, and we need them to come through for us again."
Thompson said anyone with information about Knight or the other man is encouraged to call the sheriff's office at (847) 377-4240 or Lake County Crime Stoppers at (847) 662-2222.
Heard in the hallway: Congratulations to Circuit Judge Jane Waller and her husband, State's Attorney Michael Waller, on the April 2 birth of their first grandchild, Patrick Michael Waller. Patrick is the son of Patrick and Laura Waller and is doing fine.