Arlington Heights police closed the right lane of westbound Northwest Highway, closed Gregory Street between Prindle and Northwest Highway, and closed Forrest Avenue at the parking lot of Lauterburg and Oehler for the wake for Douglas Peters. As anticipated, a large crowd, mostly members of the Outlaws motorcycle club attended the wake.
After the wake for Douglas Peters, a gathering of mourners moved to Mrs P & Me at Prospect Avenue and Emerson Street for much of the evening. Peters was a member of the Outlaws motorcycle club, which despite the name, mostly has minimal encounters with law enforcement in Illinois. The Outlaws were formed in McCook, Illinois, but is now an international organization. The motorcycle club is associated with a 1% patch worn by members, which refers to statistics of a disputed attribution that 99 percent of the motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens, and one percent are outlaws.
Apparently an ILEAS (possibly level 2) mutual aid response was activated in the area of Mrs. P & Me, 100 East Prospect at Prospect Avenue and Emerson Street. Police blocked Emerson Street between Northwest Highway and Milburn Avenue. Police also blocked Prospect Avenue between Maple Street and Route 83 (Main Street). Pedestrians, as well as vehicles were blocked access to these roads.
A NIPAS (Northern Illinois Police Alarm System) rapid response team, and another team, including at least one Bearcat armored police vehicle were staged in the area. Some police were in SWAT attire while others were in regular uniforms (with riot gear prepared but not worn) on security and traffic assignments. Uniformed police from Arlington Heights, Highland Park, Illinois State Police, Rosemont, and several other police departments were seen in the area blocking roads, working on security detail and working on patrol assignments.
It is unknown if law enforcement agencies were acting on specific intelligence of a possible threat at the gathering, or if they staged in the area only as a precaution for general security problems, or the potential of a rival gang causing security problems. Worldwide and nationwide the organization has a history of some members with arrests and convictions; but many raids looking for drugs, drug paraphernalia, and weapons, etc. have turned up no evidence.
In 2008, the FBI used an urban assault vehicle during a raid of a suspect Outlaw criminal operation on West Division Street in Chicago as a precaution in case of violence, but no violence occurred.
Peters, a 43-year-old Algonquin resident and former Mount Prospect resident, was killed in a motorcycle accident on Saturday June 21, 2014. He was killed when his motorcycle crashed into a guardrail on Route 6 in Marseilles, Illinois, where he had been riding in the Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run from the Grundy County fairgrounds to the Marseilles Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial.
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