Shortly after midnight Monday — seconds after Dan Moreno said ‘I see you’ to Arlington Heights police and shot at police, he was apparently shot in the eye by an Arlington Heights police officer. Police would discover that Moreno fell to the floor in his rented house after the short standoff with police. Moreno was rushed to Level I Trauma Center Advocate Lutheran General Hospital after officers from the Emergency Services Team of NIPAS (Northern Illinois Police Alarm System) confirmed that he was no longer a threat to police and neighbors near the house. Daniel Moreno was pronounced dead at 1:22 a.m. today at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.
VIDEO ON SCENE: Paramedics take remote position of cover Chestnut and Walnut; NIPAS response video from safe distance near the 400 block of West Palatine Road. The NIPAS response shown in the video occurred after Moreno was shot, and before his being felled was confirmed.
Arlington Heights police responded about 11:50 p.m. Sunday to a report of a domestic situation with an injured juvenile in the 400 block of West Palatine Road. Police surrounded a house in the 400 block of West Palatine Road and blocked off Palatine Road in both directions between Arlington Heights Road and Kennicott about midnight.
Police had information that a male/Hispanic unknown age was armed inside the house with a 1-year-old also in the house. A juvenile and mother escaped from the house to a neighbor’s house. The juvenile may have been battered and injured by the offender that had barricaded himself in the house. The police learned that the female was the mother and wife of Daniel Moreno — the man with the gun. At about midnight she ran back into the neighbor’s house.
Arlington Heights firefighter/paramedics and a 9-year-old that was the victim of an alleged battery, were stranded near a neighbor’s house. It is unknown if the 9-year-old was ever inside the first ambulance, but the paramedic crew realized it was not safe to get back to their ambulance and drive it away because it was in the line of fire of the offender. Then paramedics — carrying their patient and diverting around the scene — were able to walk (run?) south across Palatine Road to the intersection of Chestnut and Walnut Avenue, where they met up with a second rescue-ambulance. The second ambulance transported the juvenile victim to Northwest Community Hospital. The initial rescue squad and the rescue-ambulance vehicles continued to be stranded because of risk of more gunfire to any drivers of those vehicles for the duration of the situation, which lasted until about 3:00 a.m. The rescue vehicles were also used for cover by police.
Police near the scene reported they had seen a flash and a muffled noise — possibly a gunshot — just before 12:10 a.m. Monday inside the house. There had been activity — such as a light turned on inside the house — after the first possible gunshot. Then Dan Moreno yelled out to police officers “I see you,” and shot at police.
Possibly two more gunshots were fired. And then possibly five or six total shots in total were reported with screaming. Simultaneously, police in the outer perimeter worked to secure the area and worked on the safety of neighbors. Police requested that Northwest Central Dispatch alert neighbors by reverse 9-1-1 to “stay in their homes, stay away from windows and turn the lights off inside their homes.”
A shot at police from the house was reported by front line police officers just after 12:15 a.m. Police returned fire. Police near the house fired one shot in return during the short exchange of gunfire. Then at about 1:45 a.m there came word that there had been no activity inside the house since the last exchange of gunfire.
The NIPAS swat team was also activated about midnight. NIPAS officers worked to secure the scene, determine the status of the offender, and setup for resolution. A remote camera showed Dan Moreno lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head, and paramedics were called by NIPAS officers to expedite from staging to the scene at 2:48 a.m. The NIPAS (Northern Illinois Police Alarm System Emergency Services) Emergency Services Team responds to standoff situations with specialized operations and technologies for the best resolutions.
Daniel Moreno, 28, was brought to a rescue-ambulance surrounded by paramedics and NIPAS officers. Paramedics worked to treat or stabilize a victim for at least 15 minutes in the ambulance in the westbound frontage lanes of Palatine Road. Moreno was transported to Level I Trauma Center Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.
The man’s infant was rescued from a crib while the scene was confirmed to be secure. Both children were eventually released to their mother.
The situation at the 400 block of West Palatine Road in Arlington Heights was declared secure at about 3:05 a.m. Neighbors were notified by reverse 9-1-1 that the neighborhood was secure at 3:13 a.m.
The Arlington Heights Police Department called in the help of the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit to investigate the case, which is routine in a case involving a police shooting. An investigation should confirm what shot hit Moreno.