Crime & Safety
Man Shoots Shotgun in the Air to See if It Works
Here is a report taken from the La Grange Park police blotter.
La Grange Park police arrested and charged a local resident after he told them he shot a shotgun into the air in the early morning hours of Sept. 29.
Adam J. Owens, a 27-year-old who lives on the 1100 block of Homestead, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon with a shortened barrel, unlawful use of a weapon, discharge of a firearm, and possession of a firearm without a firearm owners identification card.
A La Grange Park police officer was patrolling at about 2:49 a.m. on the 1100 block of Barnsdale Road, about 30 feet south of 30th Street when he heard a loud bang he believed to have come from a gun. The officer saw a male in a red shirt run west, cutting across Barnsdale, in front of the squad car and carrying a dark object in his hand. The officer parked, got out of the car, identified himself as a police officer and ordered him to stop.
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The male continued west, cut through a parking lot and threw something into the bushes on the 1100 block of Homestead, where police said he lives. He tried to open a ground-level apartment screen door of his building, but could not, police said. The officer told him to lay on the ground and said he did.
Police said they found a Wards Hercules brand Model 50 double-barreled shotgun with shortened barrels in the bushes with one cartridge spent. Police said they found three live cartridges in Owens' apartment.
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Owens told police that he had traded an iPhone Touch for a shotgun and four cartridges, and after a few weeks wondered if the weapon worked. At 2:30 a.m. that day, he told police he went outside and shot the gun in the air at a 45-degree angle.
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