Five people have been taken into custody in the weekend slaying of Chicago Police Officer Aréanah Preston while she was off-duty, sources said Monday.
Four suspects were apprehended after an armed standoff in the 7600 block of South Bishop Street in Auburn Gresham that began Sunday night and lasted hours, according to a source with knowledge of the arrests.
Another source said SWAT officers responded to the home Sunday night searching for those involved in the killing of Officer Preston, 24, who was shot and killed early Saturday at 81st and Blackstone Avenue while returning home from work.
A fifth suspect was taken into custody separately, a source said.
It was unclear whether all of the people who were apprehended were directly involved in the shooting, but investigators believe they potentially have two shooters in custody, a source said. The officer’s gun was taken during the shooting and has been recovered by police.
No charges have been announced and no other details were immediately available. Police spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for more information.
Hours after the standoff ended, a neighbor of one of the suspects described him as “a menace.”
“I’m not surprised at all,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be named.
The suspect, a 19-year-old man, had lived in Auburn Gresham for two years with his mother and younger sibling, the neighbor said.
Although he had never seen drugs or guns at the home, the neighbor said “he’s a typical thug” who has been “in and out of jail.” Police had been called to the home three or four times a year, he said.
“I hope he didn’t kill that lady. But I’m glad he’s off the streets,” the neighbor said.
The block, mostly single-family homes with video door bells, is typically quiet, he said. “There’s always one bad apple,” he added. “And he was the bad one.”
Court records show the teen’s first adult arrest came in July 2021 when he was caught with a gun equipped with an extended magazine after police responded to a ShotSpotter alert and stopped a car in Grand Crossing.
While in custody, the teen spat on a cop and tried to kick another officer, records show. The charges were dropped in November 2021.
Less than a week later, he was arrested again after allegedly throwing his mother and two televisions down the stairs of their Auburn Gresham home and flattening one of her car tires, according to court records. A protective order was granted, but the charges were eventually stricken last December.
As that case was pending, he was indicted in June 2022 on felony gun charges, records show. He pleaded guilty of a single count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in January and was sentenced to two years probation and 50 hours of community service.
He was also arrested last September when tactical officers forced their way into a home in the 11200 block of South Indiana Avenue and the teenager was found sleeping near a ghost gun with an extended magazine, records show. The charge was dropped days later.
A 21-year-old woman who was also taken into custody during the SWAT incident was previously arrested in April 2021 and charged with a misdemeanor count of having a gun in her bedroom without a valid firearm owners identification card, court records show. The charge was dismissed in January 2022.
The suspect who was taken into custody during a traffic stop, a 20-year-old woman, was arrested in December 2021 and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery for allegedly punching another person and pulling her hair at the group home where they lived. The case was dropped in February 2022.
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Preston worked for the Chicago Police Department for three years and was assigned to the Calumet District. She was pursuing a master’s degree in criminology from Loyola University Chicago and would have graduated May 13.
An autopsy found that Preston died from multiple gunshot wounds, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Sunday. Her death was deemed a line-of-duty fatality, police spokesman Tom Ahern said.
It took police more than 30 minutes to arrive at the shooting scene after gunshots were detected by the city's ShotSpotter gunshot surveillance system.
Police said Preston was shot to death around 1:42 a.m. But the first notification of a person shot came more than half an hour later, at 2:15 a.m., according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
The fire department was alerted that someone had been shot when a police officer arrived and radioed that an off-duty officer had been shot, Langford said.
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Less than a minute later, an ambulance and a paramedic-staffed fire engine were dispatched to the scene, Langford said. They were both rolling less than a minute after that, he said.
But when the fire engine arrived at 2:23 a.m., the crew didn’t find anyone injured, Langford said. The police officer already had carried Preston to his squad car and rushed her to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she died.
The police haven’t released a timeline of when officers were first dispatched to the crime scene.
Preston’s father, Allen Preston, described his daughter as a “beautiful soul” who “always saw the best in people” and had long wanted to be a police officer.
“She was trying to make a change on this Earth. It’s unforgivable, in my eyes,” he said of the shooting.
Detectives canvassed the neighborhood the day of the shooting, asking neighbors for doorbell-camera video for the investigation.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2023. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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