Windows Broken At Aldermanic Candidate's Home
CHICAGO (STMW) - Police are investigating what blew out several windows at the home of a South Side aldermanic candidate early New Year's Day.
Rev. Andre Smith said he heard two "tremendously loud" booms sometime after 12:20 a.m. Saturday after returning home from church with his family. The explosions blew out six double-pane windows at his family's first-floor apartment at 6000 S. Indiana Ave.
He was playing cards with his mother-in-law in her third floor apartment when he heard the explosions and smelled smoke, Smith said. His family was not injured, and he found a flare-type item in the home afterward, he said.
Smith said his sons normally sleep in the front room where the windows shattered, and he fears they would have been hurt or killed if they had been in the room when the blasts went off.
Police Bomb & Arson Section investigators responded to that location for a report of criminal damage to property for the broken windows, and returned later Saturday morning when the resident called to report another explosive item outside his home, police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said.
The item found the next morning was next to his wife's car, Smith said. Responding officers placed it in a metal container after they arrived, he said. Police said the items were disposed fireworks.
"I never thought it would come to the point where someone would put three bombs in my house and try to kill my kids or kill my wife," Smith said Sunday.
He plans to hold a press conference tomorrow outside the home, calling for federal authorities to investigate the incidents, Smith said.
Smith is running for alderman of the South Side 20th Ward in the upcoming February elections, according to his website.
© Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
