Three injured in ‘random acts of violence’ in Gurnee

Three people were injured, one seriously, in what police described as connected random acts of violence Monday morning in Gurnee.

The situation unfolded shortly after 10 a.m. on the 6100 block of Grand Avenue when a vehicle traveling through a parking lot aisle struck a 79-year old man who was standing near his vehicle, according to police.

The vehicle left the aisle and struck a 60-year-old woman, police said. The man suffered serious injuries and was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. The woman was taken to Northwestern Medicine Catherine Gratz Griffin Lake Forest Hospital with injuries that do not appear to be life-threatening.

While searching for the vehicle, an officer saw a man and a woman engaged in a fight near the near the 6400 block of Grand Avenue.

Investigators determined that after fleeing the initial scene, the woman approached a man sitting in his vehicle in a parking lot nearby. She struck the window of the vehicle and slashed the driver’s side tire with a large butcher knife, police said in a press release.

The man suffered several cuts to his hands while struggling with the woman but was able to disarm her and hold her for police.

After ordering the pair to separate, the woman approached the officer aggressively, according to police. The officer deployed a Taser, and the woman was arrested, police said.

The 25-year-old woman from Waukesha, Wisconsin, was the driver involved in the earlier pedestrian crashes, police said.

All the actions appear to be connected, police said, and there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Charges are pending as detectives work to determine the full circumstances.