'Suspicious Subject' Near School Turns Out to Be Registered Sex Predator: Reports

OAK LAWN, IL — A suspicious subject reportedly loitering near a parochial school was found to be a registered sex predator with gang ties, reports said.

Oak Lawn police were dispatched to the area of 97th Street and Kolin Avenue around 12:48 p.m. Sept. 15. A neighbor reported that a black man was standing near a street corner while staring at a woman pushing a baby stroller down the sidewalk near St. Germaine School, where there were children outside on school grounds.

The officer saw a man wearing a striped polo shirt, who matched the description given to him by dispatchers, in the vicinity of the school. Asked if he had talked to a woman on the street corner, the man became irritated, telling the officer that he didn’t speak to “any bitches” and “bitches” were the problem. The officer then ran the man’s driver’s license, which came back indicating he was a 41-year-old registered sex predator living in Oak Lawn, with ties to the Gangster Disciples.

When the officer was patting the man down for his own safety, police said he became irritated when the officer searched his pockets, stating he wasn’t doing anything wrong. The officer notified a detective back at the police station that the man was reportedly walking past St. Germaine School where there were children outside. State laws prohibit registered sex offenders from being within 500 feet of a school.

The detective told the officer the man could be released. The man left before the officer could give him a copy of his pedestrian stop receipt, the report said.

The officer then went back to talk to the neighbor who called 911. The neighbor said he called 911 because of the recent home invasion in the 9600 block of Kolin Avenue on Sept. 13. The neighbor told police he found it suspicious that the man was loitering near the street corner staring at the woman pushing the baby stroller. The man would not move out of the woman’s way when she walked past him.

According to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, the man was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon. The victim was 25 and the man was 23 at the time of the crime.