CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Chicago Police had a sobering encounter with an armed man who was anything but sober…or smart. The intoxicated man, who is also a concealed carry license holder, did turn out to be extremely fortunate after he pointed a loaded handgun at three officers, all of whom had their service pistols drawn. Following his arrest, a judge allowed him to walk free after posting a $1,000 deposit on a $10,000 bail, less than 12 hours after the incident.
The bizarre incident unfolded when officers responded to 66th and Wolcott in West Englewood after four gunshots were detected by ShotSpotter technology around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 11th. Rolling up on the scene with blue lights flashing, they immediately noticed a suspicious minivan. Outside were five spent shell casings, and inside was a black male in the driver’s seat who appeared to be passed out.
Taking a peek inside, they noticed that the unresponsive driver was holding a handgun in his lap. The trio of officers drew their pistols, knocked on the driver’s window, and ordered him to exit the vehicle. The driver, identified as Gregory Arrington, 36, woke up, raised the gun, and pointed it at two of the cops. Those two officers reportedly took cover at the rear of his van.
Arrington then turned and with both hands outstretched, pointed his handgun directly at the third officer. Instead of responding to the imminent threat to their lives by opening fire on the man, the officers continued to repeatedly order Arrington to put down his gun and step out of the van, which he eventually did.
Officers reported that his speech was slurred and he had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. They recovered a gun with three bullets in it from the van’s center console. Arrington was charged with three counts of aggravated assault of police, misdemeanor driving under the influence, and various other misdemeanors.
During the defendant’s appearance before Judge David Navarro, the judge commented, “This arrest, this stop could have ended so much worse. This was such a volatile situation.”
Navarro, a Democrat who was elected as a judge for the 4th Subcircuit of the Cook County Judicial Circuit Court in 2018, then allowed Arrington to go home after posting a $1,000 deposit on his $10,000 bail. Navarro cited Arrington’s lack of any criminal record as a factor in his leniency on the man who had just threatened the lives of three law enforcement officers with a loaded firearm.
Note: The link provided in the first paragraph was the sole source for information for this story, as the incident appears on no other local, regional, or national media outlet. The authenticity of the story was confirmed by the arrest record for Mr. Arrington on the official website of the Chicago Police Department, which indicates that he was arrested on April 11th at 8:37 p.m. and released on April 12th at 6:30 a.m., less than ten hours after the potentially deadly encounter.
