HARVEY, Ill. -- About two dozen heavily armed law enforcement officers stormed a home in Chicago's southern suburbs Wednesday to free four hostages and capture two suspects, ending a 20-hour standoff that police said began as a robbery attempt.
Two women and two children were freed midmorning from the home in the small city of Harvey, with the captors at one point firing through a second-floor door as officers rushed toward it down a hallway, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Wednesday night.
Four other children had been freed Tuesday night after the hostage-takers were given cigarettes in exchange, Dart said.
The decision was made to send armed officers in after nearly continuous negotiations, during which the hostage-takers intermittently issued threats, saying "they were going to kill the kids ... to kill everybody," the sheriff said.
"It was a roller-coaster ride," said Dart, who had been on the scene during the all-night talks. "It went from idle chatter to threats, then back to idle chatter to threats again."
The shots through the door missed officers running up the stairs and down the hallway, and officers immediately broke through the door and subdued the hostage-takers, Dart said.
Minutes later, officers ran from the house with the remaining hostages, leading them by hand to an armored truck, then brought out two men in handcuffs.
Dart did not immediately identify the suspects, but he said they appeared to have violent criminal histories.
The standoff began at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday when police in Harvey responded to a neighbor's report of a possible burglary at the home. Two officers were wounded in an initial exchange of gunfire, and the two suspects barricaded themselves inside the home with the eight captives.
Officer Darnell Keel, an 18-year veteran of the police force, will undergo surgery for a broken arm, Harvey spokesman Sean Howard said. A second officer suffered a graze injury on an arm. No one else was injured throughout the ordeal.
On Wednesday, the officers knew the hostages were on the second floor and quickly marched up the stairs after securing the ground floor.
It was initially thought no shots were fired during the rescue, but Dart said it became clear later the captors had shot at officers during the operation that lasted just minutes.
Dart said the children were not hurt, but they showed signs of an emotional toll. Some of the children were just a year old.
"The hostages were hysterical," Dart said. "They were screaming and unable to talk."
One of the adult women held captive is a nurse who was at the home to care for a 2-year-old girl who has a "health issue," Dart said. He refused to elaborate.
The hostage-takers allowed the nurse to escort the first four children they released. The woman then had to re-enter the house.
Thomas West told local radio and TV stations that his aunt, the nurse, told him she was glad to get the children out. However, she also feared that by going back into the house, she might not come out again.
"She said all she did was fall in line, did what she was told and that's the way she was able to get out alive," West said.
A Section on 08/21/2014