After a string of gun-related arrests at Naperville’s TopGolf facility over the past two months, police are working with the business to keep a close eye on safety, Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres said.
Since Sept. 11, police have made four similar busts at TopGolf’s 3221 Odyssey Court location — all stemming from an officer spotting a gun through a car window while doing a foot patrol of the venue’s parking lot.
In each case, the situation resulted in criminal charges and weapon recovery.
Arres provided an update on the arrests at TopGolf, which authorities do not believe are related, to the Naperville City Council Tuesday.
“Obviously, through proactive policing, we’ve been taking some firearms out of the TopGolf lot” from people who are not allowed to have them or have had their gun ownership rights revoked, Arres said. “But what I would like to say is, you know, TopGolf is just as concerned as we are from (a) safety standpoint.”
Naperville police have had two meetings with TopGolf officials to discuss “how they can continue to up their safety there,” he said. Meetings with both national and local management have been fruitful so far, he said.
“I felt very good about both meetings and about steps that they’re putting into place to partner with us,” Arres said, adding that TopGolf was “very open to suggestions from our department.”
He also assured the council that Naperville officers “will continue to be proactive in that lot and be a heavy presence there to keep our community safe, taking illegal firearms off the street.”
Asked Wednesday about the specific steps being taken, Arres said he “didn’t want to get into the details” to maintain the integrity of safety strategies TopGolf is working on, but generally plans are “tactic-based.”
“Different strategies for directing the security that they have and addressing certain things they see,” he said.
Police made the most recent gun-related arrest outside of the venue on Oct. 24, when Cornelius Clark Jr., 35, of Chicago, was taken into custody after a police officer reported seeing a firearm in Clark’s vehicle while it was parked in the facility’s lot.
Clark was charged with felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. His Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, required to purchase or own a firearm, was revoked at the time of the incident.
On Sept. 30, officers arrested Jalen Littleton, 19, of Hammond, Indiana, after officers said they observed a fully-loaded machine gun on the driver’s side floorboard, reports said. He was charged with unlawful use of a weapon-machine gun, a class X felony.
Less than a week prior to Littleton’s arrest, Ronald Richardson, 34, of Chicago, was taken into custody Sept. 26 after officers saw the extended magazine of a Glock 27 .40-caliber handgun — loaded with 19 rounds — protruding from the driver’s side of a parked vehicle.
Richardson, out on parole for an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon conviction in Cook County, was charged with being an armed habitual criminal and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, both felonies.
The first arrest was made Sept. 11, when an officer doing a foot patrol noticed a strong odor of cannabis coming from an unoccupied Volkswagen SUV and then observed a gun protruding from the driver’s side door frame.
Darron Prince, a 36-year-old Joliet resident, was charged with armed habitual criminal and armed violence, both class X felonies.