Trial delayed for Glendale Heights man charged with stabbing cop

A Glendale Heights man chose to delay his trial Tuesday on charges he stabbed a Joliet police officer who responded to his 911 call in 2023.

Francisco Alvarez, 44, is serving as his own attorney as he faces attempted murder and aggravated battery charges in the April 29, 2023, attack of Joliet police officer Yuliana Lopez.

Officers responded to the 500 block of Bevan Drive for a 911 call made by Alvarez, who thought “someone was outside” of the house he was staying in and someone was “out to get him,” according to prosecutors.

After Lopez unsuccessfully tried to get Alvarez to leave a closet inside the house, an ambulance was called to the scene for a “possible mental health evaluation,” prosecutors said.

When Lopez and officer Lesly Sigala opened the closet door, Alvarez “came out with a knife” and stabbed Lopez in the vest and lower left abdomen, prosecutors said. She also suffered another puncture wound to her body.

Alvarez was eventually handcuffed and officers recovered a “bloody knife” measuring 13.5 inches, prosecutors said. He admitted to wanting to kill one of the police officers, as well as using cocaine, which “increased his fears of the situation,” prosecutors said.

Will County Judge Art Smigielski granted Alvarez’s request for a court hearing on Nov. 7 to decide whether he will continue serving as his own lawyer or if he wants an attorney to represent him at trial.