Federal and state law enforcement agencies continued to search Wednesday for one of three suspects still on the run in a southwest Chicago suburb during a “criminal investigation.”
Around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bridgeview police and officers from multiple suburban and city departments joined in a search for three people who fled from federal officials, ultimately crashing a vehicle near 95th Street and Harlem Avenue and leading police on a foot chase through the area.
Two of the three suspects were found in the surrounding neighborhood, but a third person remained on the loose as of Wednesday morning, Bridgeview police said.
Two weapons were also recovered from the scene, according to authorities.
The search put thousands of people inside an area mosque on lockdown during evening prayer after the suspects fled in their direction and the manhunt grew. The lockdown left the roughly 2,500 people stuck inside for at least three hours.
The Mosque Foundation’s president, Oussama Jammal, said he was told the suspects were armed after a robbery in the Burbank area, but FBI and local authorities would only say it was an “active criminal investigation.”
“This is our annual event and then I received the first call that says there is armed people around the mosque and police start coming to the area,” Jammal said. “That of course was alarming news so of course we rushed - the event is only a few hundred meters away from the mosque - so we were able to come here instantly.”
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Jammal said he was told that at least one suspect was armed with an “automatic rifle.”
“Obviously this was quite a bit of a concern to us here,” he said.
The mosque re-opened during the early morning hours.
Police said no citizens or officers were hurt, but an investigation remained ongoing as of 6:30 a.m.
