Authorities say a police squad was believed to be totaled after cars doing burnouts attempted to flee from officers and one of them struck the squad car in Zion.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Vukovich said the Zion Police Department responded on July 7 to a warehouse for reports of street racers.
A community service officer was in the area of the 400 block of Trumpet Park Road due to issues in the area involving vehicles doing burnouts in the parking lot.
The officer saw a vehicle doing burnouts in the lot of one of the warehouses and notified other officers, Vukovich said.
Other officers arrived and activated their emergency lights and sirens.
A black Dodge Charger and a green Dodge Charger were spotted in the parking lot with a group of people, who began to flee, Vukovich said.
Both vehicles had their license plates covered with duct tape.
The black Dodge Charger, driven by Carlo A. Perez, 19, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was taking a turn at a high rate of speed, Vukovich said.
Perez’s vehicle struck a police squad car as it came around a building, causing the squad to possibly be totaled.
Vukovich said Perez was traveling at 65 mph in a 30 mph zone. He admitted to doing burnouts in the parking lot.
Perez also admitted to fleeing because he did not want to be charged in a new case, Vukovich said.
He was charged with three counts of aggravated fleeing to elude and one count of criminal damage to government property over $500.
Perez was released from custody following a First Appearance Court hearing due to the charges being non-detainable under Illinois’ SAFE-T Act.
Lake County Judge Helen Rozenberg ordered Perez not to drive without a license and placed him on Level 1 pre-trial services monitoring.
An attorney for Perez said his client may have some prior traffic cases but no criminal cases.
Perez is scheduled to appear in court again on July 30 for a status of preliminary hearing.