Mary Kruger and her 14-year-old son were at the McDonald`s drive-in window in Roselle late Monday morning waiting for hamburgers and fries when a white Ford Grenada jumped the curb, crashed through the bushes and headed for them.
The Grenada, its rear window shattered and a front tire blown out, slammed into Kruger`s Mercury Cougar.
”I knew we were going to get hit . . . but there was nothing I could do,” said Kruger, 34, of Roselle. But what happened next was even more frightening.
The Grenada sped to the rear of the parking lot of the McDonald`s, at 440 E. Maple Ave., hit a tree and was immediately surrounded by squad cars. Then, just yards from Kruger`s car, gunfire erupted.
”Get down! Get down!” she yelled to her son.
Within seconds, dozens of shots were fired while horrified bystanders looked on. None of the bystanders was wounded, but two police officers suffered shotgun wounds and the driver of the Grenada, a bank-robbery suspect, was hit twice.
More Top Picks Golf Simulators
Monday evening, authorities identified the driver as C. Brett Swoape, 33, of 642 E. Forum Drive, Roselle, who was listed in critical condition with a head wound in Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village.
Swoape was charged with three counts of attempted murder, according to Du Page County States Atty. James Ryan.
Roselle Police Chief Richard Eddington said authorities received a bank alarm from Suburban National Bank of Elk Grove Village, 801 E. Nerge Rd., Roselle, at 10:50 a.m.
Eddington, facing reporters with bandages on his nose and forehead-the result of wounds suffered during the shootout-said the first alarm was followed two minutes later by a 911 phone call from bank employees.
Witnesses told police that a man wearing a mask, sunglasses and a red and blue jogging suit and brandishing a sawed-off shotgun, had robbed the bank of an estimated $12,000. The man escaped in a 1975 Ford Grenada, a car that had been stolen Aug. 7.
Minutes after the call, David Hancock, a 29-year-old officer with the Itasca Police Department, saw a car matching that description near Medinah and Irving Park Roads.
Hancock pursued the car and was later joined by units from the State Police, Du Page Sheriff`s Department and Roselle Police Department.
The 11-mile chase led officers south on Medinah Road to Lake Street and then east to Illinois Highway 53.
Police say a roadblock was set up at Army Trail Road and Illinois 53. Police did not release details of what happened there, but acknowledge that shots were fired and Hancock was wounded in the hand.
A woman in a nearby gas station also was hit by a stray shot. She was treated at a hospital and released, police said.
Hancock was taken to Glen Oaks Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition after undergoing surgery.
The car drove northbound on Illinois 53 back to Irving Park Road. An onlooker, Les Thompson, was driving at Illinois 53 and Lake Street when the fleeing car came speeding by. The driver ”was hunched over the steering wheel. He looked determined, and he looked scared,” said Thompson, 29, of Schaumburg.
Mike Fuchs, owner of Roselle Service Center, which is across the street from the McDonald`s, was working on a car when the Grenada came speeding westbound on Irving Park Road.
The Grenada hit a vehicle at Irving Park and Maple Avenue before crashing into the restaurant parking lot, eventually slamming into the tree.
Two police cars were in the parking lot of a nearby auto parts store, facing the suspect on the west, and about seven squad cars surrounded him from the north and east, directly behind the McDonald`s, said witnesses.
The driver of the Grenada ”got right out of the car and started shooting,” said Fuchs. ”He turned around immediately and shot at the officer behind him.”
The shots wounded Eddington and Roselle Police Sgt. Jimmy Lee Jr., 31, who was hit in the back and side by shotgun pellets. Both were treated in Alexian Brothers and released.
Witnesses said 20 to 40 shots were fired during the face-off ”which was done in about a minute, but it seemed like an hour,” said Fuchs.
Monday`s bank holdup in Roselle marked the 49th time this year that a bank in the Chicago area has been robbed.
Curiously, the first bank robbery of the year involved a Roselle bank, Harris Bank at 400 E. Irving Park Rd., on Jan. 2.
So far, the 1992 pace of bank robberies lags that of 1991, when a record 95 robberies occurred throughout metropolitan Chicago.
”We are probably looking at 1992 as the second highest year for bank robberies around here,” Chicago FBI spokesman Robert Long said.
The violence displayed Monday morning is uncommon in most bank heists.
”Two-thirds of the robbers are armed or say they are armed. But when it comes to the use of weapons, that`s rare,” Long said.
Until Monday`s robbery and shooting in Roselle, Jeffrey Erickson was the last local bank robbery suspect to shoot and wound a police officer.
Erickson killed himself and two law enforcement officers July 20.
Of the 49 holdups to date, 21 occurred in Chicago with 28 in the suburbs. As the Roselle shooting began, John Mills, 45, the store manager of Carquest at 418 E. Maple Ave., which is directly west of the McDonald`s, walked out of his store to see what was going on.
More Top Picks Best Blackout Tents For Beds
”I ran over to one side of our building and saw (Sgt. Lee) by the corner. He said, `Get me out of here, I`m hit,` ” said Mills.
”He was visibly shaken. He was resting himself against the building and he motioned for me to come over. I grabbed him by the arm and . . . dragged him over into the store.”
Mills didn`t know if the shooting continued while he helped Lee into the store, but he said he felt safe doing so, since the gunfire exchange occurred at the side of his building, and not the front.
But the rest of Mills` employees, like others in the vicinity who took cover, were hiding under the counter of the store.
Ed Kwiatkowski, 58, who makes deliveries for Carquest, said he ”hid in the bathroom on the floor until I didn`t hear gunfire anymore.”
Police found a black bag on the floor of the passenger side of the Grenada`s front seat and said they recovered some money.
A portable police scanner was lying just outside the driver`s side after the shootout.
Ty Peck, 32, who lives across the street from Swoape, said he had only seen his neighbor a half-dozen times, but ”every time I saw him, he was wearing fatigues.”
A former neighbor, Jeannette Eakins, said that the Swoapes had lived in their home, located less than a mile from the bank, for a little over a year. She said the couple and their two children were very quiet, and she only saw Swoape wearing work clothes.