Shorewood Officer Fatally Shoots Man In La Quinta Parking Lot

SHOREWOOD, IL — More than five months after Shorewood police investigated a deadly shooting in the parking lot for the new La Quinta Inn & Suites, Shorewood police fatally shot a man in the same parking lot, during a late night standoff.

During Tuesday's 3:30 a.m. phone interview, Shorewood Police Chief Phil Arnold told Joliet Patch that the man who died had fired his gun at one of the officers responding to the 911 call at the La Quinta. Tuesday morning, the Will County Coroner's Office identified the man as Jose DeJesus-Hernandez, 39, of Oswego.

"Based on everything at this point in time, it appears to be justified," Arnold said of his Shorewood police officer's use of deadly force.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. Monday, Shorewood police raced to the La Quinta Inn, 19747 NE Frontage Road, for a call involving a man requesting an ambulance in the rear of the parking lot.

The officers found the man, later identified as DeJesus-Hernandez, in a car in the back of the parking lot. When the officers approached, he pulled out a gun, Arnold said. Shorewood's police chief said his officers took up a place of safety and tried to get the man to put down his weapon.

After a short standoff, the man fired his gun, and one of the Shorewood officers returned fire, striking DeJesus-Hernandez, Arnold said.

DeJesus-Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene.

"Only one officer was involved in shooting," Arnold said.

The incident is now being investigated by the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force.

None of the officers was not struck by gunfire when the man in the hotel parking lot fired his weapon, Arnold said.

By midnight, at least two dozen police cars from area agencies including Shorewood, Joliet, Will County, Channahon and Illinois State Police converged upon the La Quinta hotel along the frontage road.

Several officers gathered around the car in the back of the parking lot, and portable lights were set up as the officers gathered evidence during the early morning hours.

The last shooting at the La Quinta hotel parking lot involved a man who shot his former girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.

Last Oct. 4, Shorewood police announced that 36-year-old Plainfield resident Brandon Mills died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside the La Quinta hotel after he shot a 28-year-old Plainfield woman.

The woman was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds following the late night shooting in the 19700 block of the northeast frontage road. In the October shooting, Mills waited several hours before emerging from his vehicle and confronting the woman in the parking lot where the shooting occurred.

Mills died from his self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene and the woman was in stable condition at AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center.