COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — An Avondale man reported his girlfriend's car stolen after officers watched him slam it into their police car and then flee on foot, court records show.
Police set up surveillance of Hector Santiago, 41, after learning he was going to sell drugs in near West Irving Park Road and North Sawyer Avenue on March 22, records state.
Santiago, driving his girlfriend's silver Pontiac Vibe while she was out of town, pulled over to a curb about 2:38 p.m. A woman got inside the car, and as Santiago began to drive away, the officers pulled up behind him in an unmarked police car and turned on their sirens, documents show.
Santiago turned into a parking lot where he crashed into a parked car and then backed up, slamming into the officer's vehicle. Santiago then got out of the car and ran, followed by one of the officers. The officer saw Santiago throw a bag of 22.5 grams of heroin to the ground as he ran, which the officer was able to "immediately" recover, records show.
Santiago was able to escape the officer's pursuit.
Santiago called his girlfriend, who was on a trip in Puerto Rico, later that day to tell her he was running from the police and that he crashed her car and left it at the scene. He told her made a false police report that someone burglarized their apartment, located in the 3400 lock of North Hamlin Avenue, and stole her keys and her car, court records said.
Santiago was on parole for a conviction of manufacture or delivery of between 15 and 100 grams of heroin, records show. Parole officers arrested him at his apartment Friday, where they found two grams of cannabis in his Buick LeSabre, records state.
Santiago was ordered held on $50,000 bond Saturday for charges of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school and making a false police report. He is an admitted member of the Spanish Cobra street gang, records show.
