La Grange Park Man Arrested After Seen Walking Outside With Shotgun

A La Grange Park man was released Feb. 21 from a Glendale Heights hospital where he received a psychiatric evaluation after he was arrested Feb. 15 after being seen walking outside his home with a shotgun. 

Randall J. Forrest, 58, of 1438 Stonegate Rd. was charged with unlawful use of a weapon.

In his home, La Grange Park police said they found three other weapons, ammunition and vials of testosterone that appeared to be manufactured outside of United States.

Police received a call at about 2:59 p.m. of a man walking around the street with a gun in his hand. La Grange Park police officers told residents and school children to clear the area. A detective standing at the rear of the home said he saw a man at the front doorway standing behind a closed storm door. Told to leave the house, the man, later identified as Forrest, opened the storm door and stepped out, police said. Five police officers approached the home with their weapons drawn at low-ready position.

Forrest was standing behind the closed storm door, looking at the officers and  putting his hands into an open closet next to the open front door, placing his hands on the barrel of a shotgun, police said. He unlocked the door for officers, who put him on the ground and handcuffed him. Police recovered a fully loaded Mossberg shotgun that had a round chambered to be fired.

In the home were numerous cats and piles of fecal matter and urine, police said. Police said they also found a .22 caliber Feather Enterprise ordinance rifle with optical scope; a Thompson .54 caliber long rifle; and a Red Ryder Daisy BB rifle. Ammunition was found in the bedroom and basement.

Also found in the basement was a refrigerator with more than 20 vials of testosterone—Trembo Vet 100, humatrope, Testo Plex 100 and others—mostly labeled in Spanish; it appeared to be manufactured outside the United States, police said.

Forrest was taken by ambulance to Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital for high blood pressure and a cut to his right palm. He was transferred to Glen Oaks Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, police said.

At La Grange hospital, he told police that all he did was take the trash out to the street with a shotgun in his hand. He, “only wanted to bring the shotgun to the garage,” but decided it might get water damage there, so he put it in a closet near the front door.

Forrest told police that he, “understood how his action could have caused panic and fear to his neighbors.”

He said it never would happen again because the police took his shotgun.

An observer at the scene told police that Forrest had been acting strangely about a week before, kicking in his own front door.     

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