The SWAT response and shelter-in-place order in Lake in the Hills Thursday morning was due to a search warrant on a 20-year-old man allegedly possessing 38 rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition without a FOID card.
Joel Fernandez, 20, was arrested without incident at his residence in the 1400 block of Clayton Marsh Drive in Lake in the Hills and was charged with four counts of possessing ammunition without a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, a Class A misdemeanor.
At around 9:50 a.m. Thursday, the Lake in the Hills Police Department – assisted by the Carpentersville Police Department and the McHenry County Sheriff’s multijurisdictional SWAT team – executed a search warrant at Fernandez’s residence.
“The search warrant was part of a joint investigation into illegal activity,” the Lake in the Hills Police Department said in a news release.
A criminal complaint filed in McHenry County Circuit Court alleges that Fernandez knowingly possessed – without a valid FOID card – 20 cartridges of .45 Auto Sellier & Bellot branded full metal jacket (FMJ), 13 cartridges of .223 Remington branded steel core FMJ, one cartridge of 9mm Blazer Brass branded FMJ, one cartridge of 9mm Remington-Peters branded FMJ, one cartridge of 9mm Speer branded jacketed hollow point (JHP), and two cartridges of 9mm Sig Sauer branded JHP.
This means that Fernandez was allegedly possessing 25 cartridges of pistol ammunition and 13 cartridges of rifle ammunition, totaling 38.
The complaint did not mention whether Fernandez possessed firearms.
Fernandez was transported to the McHenry County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on March 5.
Fernandez does not have any prior criminal cases against him in McHenry County.
The SWAT operation prompted police to issue Nixle and social media alerts advising residents to shelter in place, but it did not specify an exact radius of the order.
The department asked people to avoid the block encompassing Washington Street, Lincoln Street, McKinley Street and Clayton Marsh Drive.
The department later issued an updated Nixle alert at around 10:40 a.m., saying the shelter-in-place had been cancelled.
“That order was in effect for less than one hour,” the police department said.
The alert said the police activity in the area of Clayton Marsh Drive and Washington Street, which do not intersect, had “safely concluded.”
Officials added that there was “no longer” a threat to public safety.
“Thank you for your cooperation in this law enforcement matter,” the alert said.
A nearby pre-school was reportedly on lockdown, but other schools in the Lake in the Hills area were not reported to be on lockdown.
A spokesperson for District 47 told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that Indian Prairie Elementary School, which is approximately a half-mile to the west of the search warrant, “did not receive guidance from the police department prompting a lockdown.”
A spokesperson for Community Unit School District 300 said no schools in the district went on lockdown on Thursday morning.