Witnesses: Chase 'was like a movie'

Michelle Lorman says it was like being in a movie.

The West Chicago woman and her passenger, Nicole Bratko of St. Charles, were heading home Friday after spending the morning cleaning homes and offices for Lorman's company. Northbound on Route 59, they were waiting to make a turn onto James Avenue when they heard a siren and saw the intersection's white emergency light begin to blink.

That's when everything started to happen very, very quickly.

First, they both saw a squad car racing through the intersection heading south on Route 59. "When he passed me I thought, 'He's going pretty darn fast,'" Lorman said.

The next thing they knew there were more squad cars approaching, only these were coming from behind and heading north.

That's when the man the police were pursuing, escaped convict Robert Maday, came zooming toward the intersection in a gray, Volkswagen Jetta authorities believe he stole earlier in the day.

Lorman and Bratko said they think he tried to squeeze between their car and a Jeep that had pulled to the right.

"He clipped the rear of the Jeep and then hit a light pole and that thing just flew up," Lorman said.

Bratko said she couldn't believe how high the pole went. "I've never seen anything like it," she said, "it just amazes me."

The Jetta then plunged through the bushes in front of a house on the northeast corner of the intersection and came to rest in the front yard.

Police arrived seconds later.

"The cops jumped out of their cars with their guns out," Lorman said. "It was like a movie."

Lorman wanted to stay, but Bratko was urging her to get away from the intersection.

"She was freaking out, and I was afraid to move," Lorman said.

"I'm thinking we were going to get shot," Bratko said.

Lorman eventually made the turn, drove the short way home, grabbed her video camera and immediately headed back to the scene.

"Unfortunately, my battery went out before they took the guy on the stretcher," she said.

Bratko said the two women had been talking to clients about the manhunt earlier in the day, "but I wasn't thinking in my wildest dreams this would happen to us."

Lorman said she was relatively relaxed after the incident and was preparing to donate blood Friday afternoon.

Bratko, on the other hand, admitted she was still "a little shaken up."

She said she kept thinking about what would have happened if the suspect's car had struck their vehicle instead of the Jeep.

"Somebody," she said, "must have been watching over us."