Two children and two women have been rescued by police after being held hostage for two days in a Harvey, Illinois, home. The two suspects in the case have been taken into custody.
Reports say police responded to the home after receiving a robbery call and the two suspects then barricaded themselves inside, keeping women and children as hostages. (Video via CLTV)
At first, it was unclear how many people were inside the home. Originally the sheriff's department said there were just two adult hostages.
WFLD explains the uncertainty about the number of hostages came from the captors' refusal to communicate with authorities.
Eventually police determined there were actually eight hostages. During the standoff, the captors released four children one by one but continued to hold two children and two women. (Video via WMAQ)
At one point there was an exchange of gunfire, and two police officers suffered gunshot wounds to their arms. One was treated at the scene, and the other was taken to the hospital and later released. (Video via WBBM)
Law enforcement officials say they first tried verbally negotiating with the suspects to release the remaining hostages, but those negotiation efforts weren't successful. After 21 hours, authorities decided they needed to force entry into the home.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told media outlets: "Things had gotten to the point where it was clear we had to change up what was going on. ... There had been threats against the hostages."
Harvey didn't have the safest reputation to begin with. When compared to other cities in the U.S., it only scored a 2 on a 1-100 scale with 100 being the safest.
This NeighborhoodScout chart shows in Harvey, the violent crimes are more than double the state's median.
Authorities say the captors in this week's incident didn't struggle upon their arrest. The freed hostages are reportedly traumatized but physically unharmed.
