Evanston police say they’re still looking for the suspect in Friday’s battery incident that led to a lockdown of local schools, but they’ve concluded there is no current threat to the public.
In a news release issued late Thursday afternoon, Cmdr. Ryan Glew says threats the person made were limited to family and/or family associates, law enforcement and himself.
Though police cannot rule out the possibility the suspect is in the area, Glew said, he does not have another residence in Evanston and most of his social and family network exists outside of the city.
Glew says the family member who was the victim of the battery was not hospitalized and that police did recover firearms when they executed a search warrant on the suspect’s apartment.
He says at the time the soft lockdown request was made to local schools, the police were not sure whether the suspect had fled the scene, was in the area, or had returned to his apartment.
Glew says police are not releasing the identity of the suspect because, “regardless of any potential criminal liability, the involved individual is in need of care” and that is a factor in the investigation and in determining what information is being released.