2 Armed Suspects Were Guarding Elmhurst Eatery: Police

ELMHURST, IL — Two armed private security guards hired by a downtown Elmhurst business were carrying guns and wearing ballistics vests a few blocks away from the city's first Black Lives Matter protest earlier this month, police said. At the time, many downtown shops were boarded up in and dozens of officers were on hand in case of riots. The demonstration was peaceful.

In response to a Patch public records request, police provided their report on the arrests of the two men. Shortly before 6 p.m. June 2, police were on post at York Street and Palmer Drive when a citizen reported seeing a car with two men inside wearing ballistics vests and armed with rifles, police said. The two men were at York and Adelaide streets. According to the report, the men worked for Primos Locos, a yet-to-open downtown Mexican restaurant.

Arrested were 30-year-olds Steven Cantore of Joliet and Giuseppe Lombardo of Addison. Both men were released from jail the next day. They were charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Their cases are pending.

According to the police report, when officers encountered Cantore, he was wearing a black ballistics vest with a gold badge saying, "ADW Field Manager Private Unit 88," with badge number "001." He had a 9mm-pistol concealed and a Ruger AR-556 rifle in his car, police said. Next to the rifle on the seat were three loaded 30-round magazines for the rifle, police said. He also had a 9mm Walter Creed handgun along with ammunition in a rifle case, according to a police report.

In Lombardo's car, police found a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle lying on the back seat, the report said. The gun was unloaded.

Police ran the men's names through a database, learning Lombardo had a revoked firearm owner's identification, while Cantore possessed valid FOID and concealed carry weapon cards.

According to the report, Cantore said he was willing to own up to his mistake. He said they could not openly carry, so they put their guns back in their cars, which were parked in the Gibbons Funeral Home parking lot. Cantore said when they met the restaurant owner, they put on their rifles, the report said. He denied seeing the police officers before putting his rifle away, saying he rushed to his car because what he was doing was illegal. He said he did not have an open carry permit and was not on private property.

Lombardo told police that when they were armed, he asked Cantore whether they were on private property, to which Cantore responded they were fine where they were. Lombardo said he told Cantore it seemed like public property, so he put his rifle on his back seat, police said. Lombardo said he did not know his FOID card had been revoked.

The owner of Primos Locos told police he had hired six off-duty police officers to work as security for his business and Gibbons Funeral Home, but the officers were called into work. So he then called a person who runs a private security company, which sent Cantore and Lombardo. The report did not include the name of the security company.

The restaurant owner was apologetic for the incident because he did not expect the guards to be armed on the public way, police said.

The report did not mention that the demonstration was happening a few blocks away at North Avenue and York Street when the men were arrested.

The owner of Primos Locos could not be reached for comment.