Captures made in Vernon Hills armed robbery
Vernon Hills police say five people are in custody after the attempted armed robbery of a Mexican grocery store Thursday morning that resulted in area schools being locked down for about an hour.
Officer Sharon Joseph said the five suspects all had been under surveillance by the U.S. Marshals Office before they jumped the store owner of La Tienda Del Pueblo Mexican grocery store on the 100 block of Townline Road.
Joseph said it’s unclear why the five were under surveillance by federal authorities before their arrests following the 8:30 a.m. robbery attempt.
Police said the case is under investigation and have not yet released the names of the suspects.
Joseph said three suspects entered La Tienda minutes after the owner unlocked the front door, while two others were in the parking lot as lookouts.
The three offenders inside the store, one armed with a hand gun, told the owner to lay down on the floor. They had begun to tie him up when the owner’s wife entered the store from the rear of the building, Joseph said.
They were in the process of putting her on the floor, Joseph said, when members of the Vernon Hills Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Office and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office broke through the glass front door of the store and moved in.
Joseph said one suspect in the store and the two lookouts were taken into custody immediately. However, two suspects escaped through the rear of the store and attempted to flee when police broke through the front door.
After the suspects escaped, police placed all schools in the area on lockdown, Joseph said.
The lockdown included the Hawthorn Elementary District 73 campus, Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and Vernon Hills High School. The Aspen Drive Library was also locked down, but Westfield Hawthorn Shopping Center remained open. Joseph said the lockdown was lifted about 9:55 a.m. after police had the two escaped suspects in custody.
Police and members of the U.S. Marshals office were seen coming in and out of the grocery store at noon, carrying evidence bags and stepping over broken glass shards of the door.
Simultaneously, the U.S. Marshals Office requested divers search a nearby pond on Aspen Drive, Joseph said.
“I’m not sure what is in the pond at this point,” she said. “I just know they requested a search of the pond for something one of the offenders may have thrown in there.”
Louis Herrera, 26, son of the victims, said his parents were shaken up but otherwise OK.
“It was very strange, to say the least,” Herrera said. “My dad just moved to this location a couple of months ago and he knows all the people who come in there. It was really a shock to hear all of this going down.”