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History See other History Articles Title: BANK SUSPECT SEIZED, WIFE SLAIN BANK SUSPECT SEIZED, WIFE SLAIN Melita Marie Garza and David Ibata. Tribune reporters Marla Donato, V. Dion Haynes, Matt O`Connor, Sue Ellen Christian and Colin McMahon contributed to this article CHICAGO TRIBUNE December 17, 1991 A three-day FBI stakeout of a stolen car led to the capture of a suspected bank robber Monday and a chase and shootout across Schaumburg and Hanover Park that resulted in the death of the suspect`s wife. Authorities identified the suspect as Jeff E. Erickson, 33, who had been a Hoffman Estates police officer for slightly more than a year in the mid-1980s. Though he was charged with only one bank robbery, Erickson is suspected of being the ''bearded bandit'' responsible for as many as 11 holdups in the Chicago area as well as the shooting of a Palatine police officer in November. Erickson`s wife, Jill Sandra Erickson, 27, who fled and shot at police in a wild, 11-mile chase, was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds Monday night at Humana Hospital in Hoffman Estates. The couple lived in Hanover Park, authorities said. Their apprehension was the most violent confrontation between law enforcement officials and bank robbers this year. There have been an unprecedented 92 holdups of financial institutions in the six-county Chicago area, up from 59 in 1990. The calling cards of the bearded bandit were a false beard and sunglasses, a police radio scanner in one hand and often a handgun in the other. The robber made his getaways in stolen foreign cars. Erickson also is being investigated for the Nov. 4 shooting of a Palatine police officer, who was wounded during a routine traffic stop, police said. An FBI affidavit stated that Erickson admitted owning a weapon similar to that used in the shooting. Police said they had recovered numerous weapons from Erickson`s vehicles and home and would run ballistics tests of one and compare the results with casings found at the scene of the Palatine shooting. Erickson was charged with the Nov. 18 holdup of the First Chicago Bank of Elk Grove Village, as well as for assaulting a federal officer during his arrest Monday. The stockily built Erickson wore a long-sleeved white T-shirt, blue jeans and white high-top basketball shoes without laces as he stood handcuffed Monday in a Chicago courtroom before U.S. Magistrate Rebecca R. Pallmeyer. Although Erickson`s defense attorney, Daniel Alexander, said his client posed no risk of flight, Pallmeyer ordered Erickson held in the federal lockup at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago pending a detention hearing on Thursday. Hoffman Estates Police Lt. John Gomoll confirmed that Erickson had been an officer on the force from April 1986 until May 1987. ''He was in training with us . . . and his evaluations were below standards,'' Gomoll said. ''His poor performance was discussed with him, and he resigned.'' Before that, Erickson was an auxilary police officer in Rosemont for about a month in 1985, Gomoll said. A mechanic, Erickson served four years in the Marines and received an honorable discharge in February 1981. In an affidavit filed Monday in U.S. District Court by FBI Special Agent David G. Childre, the agent said that a theft of a foreign car always preceded a robbery by the bearded bandit. All but one of the cars had been stolen during the day in or near shopping centers while their owners were at work. With this in mind, the FBI since Friday had been tailing the movements of a Mazda stolen Dec. 9 from the parking lot of Randhurst Shopping Center in Mt. Prospect. The FBI caught up with the Ericksons shortly before noon Monday when the couple drove their rusty silver Ford Econoline van to a parking lot in a shopping center on Irving Park Road near Wise Road in Schaumburg and stopped near the Mazda, the affidavit said. Agents apprehended Jeff Erickson as he sat behind the steering wheel of the Mazda. Erickson admitted to having reached for a handgun hidden in a duffel bag on the seat next to him before surrendering, the affidavit said, an action that resulted in the assault charge. Jill Erickson sped away in the van, leading police and federal agents on a chase with the woman firing gunshots at her pursuers, striking several of their vehicles, police said. She was cornered after she turned off of Lake Street onto Bear Flag Drive in Hanover Park and sped into a residential subdivision with no other outlet. ''There must have been 40 police cars, sirens blaring,'' said Joseph Piscitelli, 31, who lives in the subdivision. ''As soon as the van turned in, the other cars blocked the entrance.'' Some time during the chase, the van`s left rear tire either blew out or was shot out, and the pavement through the subdivision was scarred with white lines from the metal rim scraping on the street. Piscitelli said that he took cover behind his own car and watched as the van came back toward the police but then stopped on the lawn near the subdivision`s entrance, its front windshield shattered apparently by bullet holes. Police called for the driver to get out. When she did not respond, Piscitelli said, ''some officers approached behind giant shields and opened the doors to the van.'' Police found Jill Erickson in the back of the vehicle, he said. ''The side of her face and neck were covered with blood,'' Piscitelli said. ''In fact, I thought it was a man. . . . They pulled her out and put her on a stretcher and covered her right away with a white sheet.'' Paramedics took her to Humana Hospital, where she died Monday evening. Witnesses said police recovered weapons and ammunition from the van. Authorities would not detail the weapons recovered, but Palatine Police Chief Jerry Bratcher said that a gun recovered from the Ericksons was similar to the weapon used in the Nov. 4 shooting of a Palatine officer. At the time of the shooting, the weapon was described as a Ruger Mini-14 rifle with armor-piercing capability. The gunman was believed to have been confronted by police while casing the area, which had two banks nearby. The bearded bandit is believed responsible for at least eight robberies and possibly as many as 11 since January 1990 in Chicago and such suburbs as Elk Grove Village, Libertyville, Norridge, Mundelein, Skokie and Wheeling. Poster Comment: Erickson shot that Palatine cop with an Australian Semi-auto pistol which is .223 caliber, same as a Mini-14. I know the guy who sold it to him at a gun show. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#3. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
ROFLMAO! That HAS to be the funniest thing I have seen or heard this week.
#5. To: sneakypete (#3)
ROFLMAO! That HAS to be the funniest thing I have seen or heard this week. No doubt you saw my comment about Erickson trying to escape from Dirksen Building lock up? No risk of flight? LOL
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