Truck driver arrested after allegedly holding children hostage near Midway

A southwest suburban man held his children and dogs hostage during a short standoff that shut down a busy street near Midway Airport before ending without injuries Monday afternoon.

A woman called police at 1:22 p.m. Monday and said her husband was holding her, along with her two small children and two dogs in the cab of a semi truck and would not let them go, Bedford Park police said.

When police arrived at the home in the 6500 block of 73rd Street, the man first tried to hit the officers with the truck, police said. He then released the woman and drove off with the children and the dogs.

The pursuit ended in the 4300 block of Cicero in the Archer Heights neighborhood in Chicago after Chicago and state police and joined the pursuit. The truck stopped, and the younger of the two children was released as a CPD SWAT team surrounded the vehicle, police said.

Just over an hour after the truck stopped in Chicago, the man released the other child and the dogs, according to Bedford Park police. He then got out of the truck and surrendered. No one was reported injured.

The Martinez family had been enjoying a quiet afternoon at home when they suddenly noticed police swarming outside their backyard.

They watched as police surrounded a tractor trailer truck in a vacant lot right outside their home.

“My grandmother starts yelling, ‘Oh my God! They’ve got guns!’ And we saw all these police with their guns drawn, talking to this guy in the trailer, trying to get him to come out or to let the people inside the trailer with him go,” said Michelle Martinez, 21,

“At one point he holds a baby out to then and the police take him. Then later, he gave himself up peacefully.”

Neighbor Maria Lopez, whose home is closest to the corner lot where the drama played out, said she was at work waiting to get picked up after a night shift, when her daughter Jasmine called, alarmed.

“She said police were all over the place in back of our house with guns and had closed off Cicero from the ramp to 47th Street and no one could get out,” said Lopez.

“It was scary. We’ve never seen anything like that around here.”

The Stevenson ramps were closed during the chaos and were reopened about 3:15 p.m., according to state police. The suspect remains in in custody Monday and charges are pending.