A convicted felon may have been suffering “a mental health episode” when he broke into a Chicago police facility, grabbed unloaded guns from a table and aimed at officers before he was shot, his public defender said Wednesday.
Donald Patrick, 47, of Waukegan, was charged with felony counts of burglary and aggravated battery of a peace officer in connection with the bizarre incident Monday at the Homan Square compound at 3340 W. Fillmore St.
Questions remain about Patrick’s mental state and his reason for showing up at the facility, which houses the police department’s Evidence and Recovered Property Section and also serves as a hub for undercover operations and the counterterrorism bureau.
During his initial court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said Patrick initially went to the facility’s main entrance and asked about getting personal property back. However, a desk officer quickly determined that Patrick had nothing there because he had never been arrested in Chicago, prosecutors said.
After asking a guard a similar question, Patrick scaled a fire escape and climbed to the fifth floor of the building, prosecutors said. There, a SWAT unit was conducting a training session in a room that included a “catwalk area,” where four officers were observing.
Patrick grabbed three unloaded guns that were left on a desk, putting one in his pocket and holding the others in each hand, prosecutors said. Patrick eventually walked up to the catwalk, catching the attention of an officer who called out that Patrick was armed.
The officer jumped from the catwalk to grab a gun but broke his foot in the fall, prosecutors said. Another cop followed, alerting other officers on the third floor about the “potential active shooter.”
As two other officers went down to the fourth floor, prosecutors said, Patrick followed onto a landing on the fifth floor, still brandishing two guns and now wearing a bulletproof vest he found.
One of the officers yelled commands at Patrick and ultimately fired as many as seven shots at him, prosecutors said. Patrick tossed the guns, and SWAT medics came to administer aid before an ambulance arrived.
Surveillance cameras captured portions of the incident but not the shooting, prosecutors said. Officers weren’t wearing body-worn cameras because they were in training.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the incident.
Patrick was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said. Prosecutors said he was treated for a facial injury, and his mugshot shows his right eye bloodied and swollen shut.
Prosecutors said Patrick made admissions while in custody, saying he was “resourceful in how he entered the building.”
Convicted of felony counts of aggravated robbery in 1995 and drug possession in 1997, Patrick was sentenced, respectively, to four years and 30 months in prison, prosecutors said. He currently has two pending misdemeanor cases in Lake County, where he’s charged with battery and criminal trespass.
As some of Patrick’s friends and family sat in the courtroom, his public defender described him as a married churchgoer who volunteers with the Salvation Army. “This very likely may have been a mental health episode,” his attorney said.
Despite being admonished by his attorney and Judge Kelly McCarthy, Patrick offered a statement that was at times incomprehensible, saying at one point he was “going to go up the chain of command.”
McCarthy said he created a “life or death situation for everyone involved in this case,” setting his bail at $500,000. If he can post the $50,000 deposit to be released, the judge said he will be placed on electronic monitoring.
His next court date was set for Oct. 5.
