Suburban Cop Who Pulled Gun On Woman Still On Leave

FOREST PARK, IL – A Forest Park police officer is still on leave three months after he brandished a gun and pulled a woman out of her car.

Patch recently obtained documents about Lt. Daniel Miller. At the time of the incident, he was in plainclothes, wearing a pro-Trump shirt.

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Two days after the April 27 incident, Forest Park Police Chief Ken Gross placed Miller on paid administrative leave.

Gross said Miller would be on leave pending an investigation into the incident. He said the police department would consider discipline, including termination.

Gross barred Miller from coming to the police station for work-related reasons, other than as a citizen reporting a crime or serving as a witness.

But Gross said the lieutenant was allowed to come in for "non-work-related personal business." Patch left a message with Gross on Monday about the exception.

Miller has not returned messages for comment.

During the afternoon of April 27, an off-duty Miller said he believed the woman, 18-year-old Brookfield resident Breanna Pantoja, was involved in a hit-and-run crash in neighboring North Riverside.

Pantoja's car left the road, but North Riverside police later determined she did not damage anything. Pantoja, who later spoke publicly about the encounter, was not cited.

Miller filed a report with his police department the same afternoon.

At Cermak Road and First Avenue, Miller said he believed the woman had left the scene of a crash and may have been a drunk driver. He started speaking with a dispatcher and pursued the woman's GMC Yukon.

Miller also said it was near the time that Riverside Brookfield High School would let out for the day.

"I believed the safest course of action was to prevent the GMC from getting to the school zone and pulled in front of the GMC in a manner to block it in at the curb with the innocent motoring public in the center lane," Miller said in the report.

Miller said he lifted the right side of his shirt so that the woman could see his badge and gun. (She told North Riverside police that Miller pulled out a gun, but did not show his badge.)

Miller contended that the woman was reaching down for something by her right thigh. Fearing that she was getting a weapon, Miller said he ordered her to stop reaching and identified himself as police.

She put the car in park, with Miller saying he holstered his gun.

He said he opened her door so that she would get out. But he said she refused, so he grabbed her out of the car. The moment was documented by another driver's video.

He then handcuffed Pantoja. North Riverside officers showed up shortly after.

Miller said he had to pick up his son from school. Shortly after, he said he contacted his department's deputy chief to inform him of the incident.

Miller was wearing a shirt that said "Trump 45" on the back and "USA 45" on the front, referring to the fact that Trump was the 45th president in his first term.

Miller's license plate reads, "PREZ 45."

In 2017, Miller shot and killed Marco Gomez, who was driving a stolen car in Forest Park, the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark newspaper reported.

Gomez's family sued Forest Park, with the village settling for $600,000 in 2021, the newspaper said.

Miller owns Stars & Stripes Sports Lounge in Indian Head Park, which is near La Grange and Western Springs.

Here are the documents from the Forest Park Police Department: