Bloomingdale police shoot knife-wielding thief dead in Glendale Heights

Bloomingdale police said a car thief is dead after officers - who had chased him from a store parking lot into a neighborhood in Glendale Heights - shot him after he'd threatened them with a knife.

Bloomingdale police responded at 7:19 p.m. to Walmart, 314 W. Army Trail Road, Bloomingdale, after a report of a man with a knife; a woman there told officers that the man had stolen her car.

Police said officers in the area saw the stolen car leaving the parking lot and heading from Army Trail Road onto southbound Schmale Road. From Schmale, the vehicle turned onto eastbound Mill Pond Drive and then south onto Chippendale Lane in Glendale Heights, before it came to a stop and the man exited the car.

As officers were giving commands, the man brandished the knife and moved rapidly toward them, police said. The officers fired at him, officials said.

The officers immediately administered first aid until the Glenside Fire Protection District arrived, but the man was pronounced dead on the scene.

Members of the DuPage County Major Crimes Task Force and the DuPage County state's attorney's office are conducting an independent investigation, police said. Glendale Heights police said they only assisted after the chase.

Anyone having any information is asked to call Bloomingdale police at (630) 529-9868.

Neighbor Brad Newlan told ABC 7 he heard multiple gunshots earlier in the evening.

"I heard 5 or 6 gunshots," Newlan said. "I was inside my house. It sounded like a crash, but it was gunshots. My dogs went crazy and everything. I came out outside, there was a bunch of police response, 20 or 30 squad cars and fire trucks and ambulances."