An 18-year-old Arlington Heights resident, Julio Cesar Ponce-Patino, age 18, of the 2200 block of Lake Cook Road, has been arrested and charged with Attempted Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking and Attempted Armed Robbery after being apprehended by Arlington Heights police on Monday, February 29. Police say the suspect was arrested immediately after he approached a woman with a knife and attempted to take her keys to attempt to commit a vehicular hijacking in the 700 block of West Rand Road. The crime occurred two days after a previous attempt by an offender about one-half mile west of Monday’s crime scene. Police say the crimes are connected.
On Saturday, February 27, police say the same suspect that attempted to rob a woman at knifepoint in the 1400 block of West Rand Road at an apartment complex tried to rob another woman in another apartment complex in the 700 block of West Rand Road two days later.
On Monday, February 29, police say the same offender accosted a woman at knifepoint in the 700 block of West Rand Road and demanded she turn over the keys to her vehicle. The offender was scared off by the woman’s screams behind the Stonebridge Apartments and fled on foot — running behind a restaurant nearby. In Monday’s incident, the woman’s toddler and infant were inside her car.
An eyewitness updated police with the suspect’s location via a 9-1-1 call, and Arlington Heights police were on the scene within a minute or two.
The eyewitness report combined with a quick response by Arlington Heights Police Department patrol officers, is credited with apprehending the suspect a short distance away from his second attempted vehicular carjacking in as many days.
Julio Cesar Ponce-Patino (police photo).
The offender was positively identified and confessed to both incidents. On Tuesday, March 1, 2016, the offender appeared in the 3rd District Courthouse in Rolling Meadows where bond was set at a total of $400,000/D on both charges. The next court date was set for March 24, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. in room 108 at the 3rd District Courthouse.
Arlington Heights Fire Department paramedics also responded to the scene Monday because it was initially believed the woman was stabbed. No people were stabbed, and paramedics did not transported anyone from the crime scene.
Police at the scene of an incident involving a reported “man with a knife attempting to stab a woman” at Stonebridge Apartment, 700 West Rand Road in Arlington Heights.
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IMPORTANT ALERT …
Cardinal Note: As of June 5, 2013 — up to and including the date of this article — police incidents related to the above police agency are not reported in real time or within a prompt time period. Police protecting their realm of investigation and police activity, have chosen to use secret military-grade encrypted radios to withhold their police communications, which were previously open to the public and news media via monitoring of public safety scanning radios — with no known negative results locally.
The delayed knowledge or entirely blacked out knowledge resulting from encrypted police communications may protect certain police operations and investigations, but it also puts the public at risk in situations such as when armed and dangerous offenders are at large and when other similar situations occur, such as when desperate offenders of property crimes are eluding police. In other cases, the delayed or blacked out information inhibits or prohibits the possibility of the public providing early witness accounts before a criminal trail goes cold. Citizens are much more likely to recognize or recall suspicious or criminal activity if they are aware of the criminal incident within minutes or hours of its occurrence. The most serious incident involving dire results would be a trail that is allowed to go cold in the case of child abduction.
The lack of real time information from public police dispatch also weakens an effective neighborhood watch program mostly working to prevent property loss, but also working to prevent possible violent crimes.
Lack of real time information from police dispatch also delays public awareness or eliminates public awareness of general hazards and traffic or other situations in every day living in an otherwise economically thriving community.
Police have alternate ways to transmit tactical, operational or investigative information, while still keeping their main public dispatch channels open for the best balance of public safety and police safety.