A man has been charged with leading police on a chase before barricading himself inside a car and shutting down Ogden Avenue in west suburban Aurora more than a week ago.
Antonio J. Bazaldua, 41, was charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding, fleeing/attempting to elude a police officer and driving on a suspended or revoked license, according to the Kendall County sheriff’s office. He was also wanted on an in-state warrant.
An Aurora police sergeant spotted a car heading south on Hill Avenue near Fifth Avenue about 2:45 a.m. April 7, according to Aurora police. Upon running the car’s license plate, the sergeant learned the registered owner was wanted on several warrants in Kendall County.
The sergeant stopped the car near Hill Avenue and Goodwin Drive, police said. He got information from the driver and passenger, and was walking back to his squad car when the car took off.
Bazaldua led police on a chase that passed through parts of Aurora in Kane, DuPage, Kendall and Will counties, as well as parts of Oswego and Plainfield, police said. He let his passenger, a 38-year-old woman, out of the car shortly after 3 a.m. at Second Avenue and Ohio Street.
He continued to drive away from police until the car came to a stop at 3:21 a.m. on Ogden, just west of Waterford Drive, according to police. During the chase, officers made contact with the man on his cellphone and learned he may have been armed. He repeatedly spoke about harming himself and continued to do so after he was stopped.
Officers saw Bazaldua holding “an object resembling a pistol” to his head inside the car, police said. After about 30 minutes, he got out of the vehicle holding his phone in one hand and refusing officers’ orders to take his other hand out of his pocket. He got back into the car after a few minutes.
By 3:57 a.m., officers from the Aurora and Naperville police departments used armored vehicles to pin the car in and isolate it as negotiators continued speaking with Bazaldua, police said. He got out of the car again at 4:48 a.m. but still refused to show officers both hands.
Officers then deployed a “distraction device” near the front of his car before firing at him with “less-than-lethal bean bags,” police said. A police dog then incapacitated him before police took him into custody about 4:50 a.m. No weapon was found.
Bazaldua was being treated at an Aurora hospital for “minor” injuries resulting from the bean bags and a dog bite to his thigh, according to police.
Bazaldua, of Bolingbrook, was ordered held on a $280,000 bond at the Kendall County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office. He is next scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.
