Oak Park Man Charged With Punching Pregnant Girlfriend In Brookfield Zoo Lion House

Caption: Patrick O’Meara, 28, of Oak Park, is facing domestic violence and child endangerment charges. | Riverside Police Department

An Oak Park man told police that he wrapped his fist inside a baby blanket to lessen his blows against his pregnant girlfriend when he punched her inside the lion exhibit at Brookfield Zoo, Riverside police said.

Police were called to the Riverside section of the zoo around 3:45 p.m. Feb. 28 by the Brookfield Zoo Police Department to assist with a domestic battery. When Riverside officers arrived, the zoo police already had a 28-year-old Oak Park man identified as Patrick LM O’Meara in custody.

According to a Riverside Police Department news release, O’Meara and his 23-year-old girlfriend began arguing in the lion house next to the fragile desert exhibit over a missing hat they had purchased for her 11-month-old child.

Police said the argument soon escalated as O’Meara punched his girlfriend in the face while she was holding her child. As she tried to run away, O’Meara allegedly grabbed a stroller and pushed it into the woman making her fall to the ground with the child in her arms.

O’Meara ran after his girlfriend, by then grabbing the baby’s blanket from the stroller and began punching her with the blanket wrapped around his fist, the police news release said.

Zoo police took O’Meara into custody and turned him over to Riverside police officers. O’Meara had to be restrained a second time when he became violent and started bashing his head against the prisoner cage in the back of the squad car, police said.

Police said the 23-year-old woman, who is from Elmwood Park, refused medical attention for herself and her child and was treated by paramedics at the station.

Through written and verbal statements, police said O’Meara indicated he had attacked his girlfriend unprovoked. He allegedly told police that he wrapped his hand in the baby blanket to cushion the blows against his girlfriend because she was five months pregnant and he did not want to injure her.

“This statement in itself is completely irrational,” said Chief Tom Weitzel of the Riverside Police Department.

The woman allegedly refused to cooperate with the investigation.

O’Meara was charged with two counts of domestic violence and one count of child endangerment under an Illinois law that allows police to press charges on behalf of domestic violence victims when there is evidence of great bodily harm or signs of physical violence, Weitzel said.

There were no felony charges due to the girlfriend’s lack of cooperation. Riverside police also contacted the Department of Children and Family Services to open a child welfare investigation.

O’Meara was released on $10,000 bail.