COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man is facing criminal charges after police saw him throw a handgun into the lake at Northerly Island on Sunday.
Chicago Police officers on bike patrol spotted Juan Lopez, 23, drinking beer on the lakefront about 8 p.m. Sunday, according to Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto, who spoke during a bond hearing Monday.
As police approached Lopez and his friends, prosecutors said, Lopez walked toward Lake Michigan, pulled a handgun from his waistband and tossed it into the lake.
The officers requested backup from a CPD Marine Unit, which found the gun "within minutes," Scaduto said. It was a 9-mm handgun loaded with six live rounds.
Lopez, of the 5300 block of South Sacramento Avenue, does not have a valid FOID card or concealed carry license — and wouldn't be eligible for either due to a prior gun conviction, prosecutors said.
He is charged in this case with unlawful use of a weapon and having alcohol on park property.
Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas on Monday set bail at $50,000.
According to police, the officers who arrested Lopez were not part of the Summer Mobile Patrol Unit announced last Wednesday. But the incident was the latest in a string of crimes along the lakefront in recent weeks.
On Saturday, a 24-year-old man was wounded in a shooting on Foster Beach in Edgewater.
A man was charged last week after trying to fire a gun on Oak Street Beach, and a massive brawl on North Avenue Beach left four people hospitalized over Memorial Day Weekend.
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