SWAT Team Storms Schaumburg Apartment After 5-Hour Standoff
UPDATED 08/16/12 at 5:30 p.m.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (CBS) -- Police in Schaumburg charged six people Thursday in connection with a five-hour standoff in which party-goers barricaded themselves inside an apartment and held one occupant against her will before SWAT officers forced their way in.
John Christopher Martel, 22, was charged with one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct and one misdemeanor count of unlawfully permitting a minor to become intoxicated, Schaumburg police said. Five others, ranging in age from 17 to 20, were charged with alcohol-related ordinance violations.
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The standoff started just before 2 a.m. Thursday, when a patrol officer was questioning a couple of suspicious people in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 2200 block of Pennview Lane, near Knollwood Drive, Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebl says.
The officer heard a commotion at a nearby building and saw several people running. He chased after them but they ran into an apartment and he heard a woman yelling for help, WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger reports.
He called for more officers who tried but failed to force their way into the apartment.
"It was later learned that the door had been physically fortified with furniture that was blocking any possible opening of the door," Nebl said.
For five hours, he says SWAT teams stood by while police tried to get the men to come out. Finally, around 6:30 a.m., the SWAT teams broke through, freed the woman and took 18 people into custody; many were released hours later. Another person required medical attention and was taken to the hospital.
"One person was found inside the apartment, alive, but unresponsive," Nebl said. "It is unknown what caused this person's condition but it was not the result of any police activity."
That person has been taken to an area hospital. CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports the individual is fine.
Meanwhile, Kozlov spoke with one person who was at the party who says the occupants weren't breaking any laws. The person says they didn't want police inside and no one was crying for help.
Nebl, who says the incident stemmed from a party "gone bad," disagrees. He says the woman told detectives she was calling for help.
Investigators are at the Schaumburg police department this morning, trying to sort it all out.
