A criminal repeat-offender steals a car in Englewood. The stolen vehicle is later identified by police at the Castle Rock Outlets using drone technology. Three police officers drive through the parking lot and blockade the perpetrator as he gets into the driver’s seat of the stolen car. The perp then rams through the three police vehicles and at least one parked car “treating the shopping center like a racetrack,” according to a 23rd Judicial District deputy district attorney.
The high-speed chase lasts for a few more minutes and ends with one officer crashing his police vehicle head-on into the stolen car. Then the perp flees on foot from the stolen car but is captured after a short chase. This happened in January 2022. A few weeks ago, that defendant, Roy Allen Elliot-Casaus, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle theft, assault on a police officer, and vehicular eluding, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison to be served consecutively with a six-year sentence for an unrelated crime in another county.
Personally, I like cops and don’t like robbers. And I’m a long-time TV viewer of “Chicago PD,” where Sgt. Hank Voight and his squad use surveillance cameras and modern technology to catch criminals. Justice being served and the conclusion of the above story owes its success to the Flock cameras that first identified that stolen vehicle…