Armed individual in custody after ‘heavy’ police response to barricade situation

(Updated at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7)

Police took a man into custody Tuesday following a two-and-a-half-hour standoff in Wilmette.

A statement from the Wilmette Police Department says emergency units responded around 9 a.m. to the 1900 block of Wilmette Avenue after a female individual came to the police station to report domestic battery.

Police responded to the scene, where an armed man “made threats” about not leaving the home until he was “safely” taken into custody around 11:30 a.m., police said. A press release from the WPD says the department was aided by area units involved in the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, and the individual reportedly exited the residence willingly.

The man was charged with three crimes, including domestic battery and assault with a firearm, police said in a press release. The Record is not identifying the man in order to protect the alleged victim of domestic violence.

The police release says that the man had a valid firearm owner identification card and three guns were recovered from the residence.

The Wilmette Police Department posted on social media around 11 a.m. that while there was no threat to the public, residents should stay clear of the area near Wilmette Avenue and Pin Oak Drive — one block west of Ridge Road.

Police later confirmed that a male subject was barricaded inside a residence at Cleland Place, a 16-unit affordable housing development that opened in August 2021 on the former site of Peter Huerter-Wilmette American Legion Post 46.

The investigation is ongoing, the release says.

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