Mexican Independence Day Incident Arrest Made By Joliet Police

JOLIET, IL — A 28-year-old resident of Joliet who was celebrating the Mexican Independence Day over the weekend is now in the Will County Jail after Joliet police arrested Dominic Montenegro on felony charges during an incident near Memorial Stadium on Jefferson Street.

Montenegro was hauled away in handcuffs on two charges of aggravated battery to a peace officer and one count of obstructing a peace officer.

Joliet police spokesman Dwayne English said the following events led to Montenegro's arrest on Saturday night:

At 7:22 p.m., the officers responded to the parking lot for the Joliet Park District at 3000 West Jefferson Street for a large unauthorized gathering of vehicles driving recklessly in the lot and squealing their tires, appearing to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.

One of the vehicles squealing its tired in the lot was a GMC truck.

When an officer approached, Montenegro stood in front of the squad car to block the officer taking action. Eventually, Montenegro tried to run away and when the officer caught up to Montenegro and tried to place him into custody, Montenegro slapped the officer’s hands away.

Other people then pulled Montenegro away from the officer. Montenegro then grabbed another officer who was trying to arrest Montenegro. Eventually, officers managed to arrest Montenegro even as people in the crowd continued to act hostile toward the Joliet police before eventually leaving the parking lot.

Montenegro comes from the apartment units in the 600 block of Florence Avenue. Around lunch time, he walked out of the jail on Sunday, after posting 10 percent of his $5,000 bail.