5-foot-6 to 5-foot-9, about 150 pounds and bald.

An intense manhunt is ongoing in an area of apartment complexes in southern Arlington Heights, east of the Mitsuwa shopping center and north of Algonquin Road, as police try to capture a serial robber who escaped from court custody this morning.

The suspect, identified by police as Robert R. Maday, 39, of Elk Grove Village, was reportedly last seen armed and on foot in that area.

He apparently overpowered two state's attorney's office investigators who were transporting him to the Rolling Meadows courthouse this morning.

The investigators and Maday were on their way from the Kankakee County jail to a sentencing hearing, said Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Neither investigator was injured, Simonton added. Maday was in line for a 13-year prison sentence for four aggravated robberies of women last October in Schaumburg.

Arlington Heights police said Maday has two handguns in his possession. He forced one of the investigators to switch clothes with him, shedding his orange prisoner pants for the investigator's dark khakis and taking the investigator's shoes, according to Rolling Meadows Deputy Police Chief Dave Scanlan.

He was arrested in Schaumburg on Dec. 29, at which time he was out on parole for a bank robbery conviction in Pennsylvania, authorities said. Maday also faces charges of robbing a Buffalo Grove bank in December and a Huntley bank in November.

Maday is considered armed and dangerous was last seen in the 2100 block of South Goebbert Road, Arlington Heights police said. Police have been using dogs to patrol the area, and are telling anyone who sees the suspect to keep their distance and call 911 immediately.

Maday is said to be a 39-year-old white male, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a slender build and wearing a light T-shirt, black Dockers pants and possibly a black vest.

Scanlan surmises Maday overpowered the investigators somewhere on I-90 and that the car exited the tollway in Rolling Meadows. He said Maday abandoned the car, locking the two investigators inside the vehicle. He then ran to the Meijer's parking lot, where at about 10:45 a.m. he hijacked a car at gunpoint from a woman who had come there to shop.

That car was later found abandoned in the 300 block of East Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights, near Boston Blackies, and police believe Maday has been on foot in that area since.

Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 has all its schools on lockdown at this hour, and morning kindergartners are being kept at school until the situation is resolved. All District 211 high schools, as well as Rolling Meadows and Elk Grove high schools also are on lockdown, as is Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights. Several businesses in the area have also locked their doors.

Arlington Heights police sent a reverse 911 call to residents and businesses at the southern end of the village, alerting them through a recorded message of the armed man at large who is considered dangerous.

The search includes police from a multitude of jurisdictions, dogs and helicopters.

Doug Hajek, spokesman for Arlington Heights Police, said officers are studying blueprints of the apartment buildings where they think Maday may be holed up.

Carmela Garcia, 24, who lives in the condo building right next to the heart of the search, said when she returned from work at Chipotle in Rolling Meadows, she tried to get into the building but a police officer told her, "Get out of here –– do you want to get shot?"

She said she was worried about her brother Fabian, 11. "My little brother, he's been sick so he's been staying home," she said. Her mother was calling Holmes school, trying to learn if he was there, she said.

A Palatine family was watching the police lockdown from the Mitsuwa parking lot. Relatives were in one of the buildings where the search was underway, said Vanessa Betancourt, 19, who was with her two brothers, mother and son.

This is not the first time something like this has happened at these apartments, she said, but family members seemed more curious than worried. Police with dogs were patrolling and searching the area. Betancourt said she came over to the complex after Palatine High School was put on lockdown.

Check back at dailyherald.com for further details as soon as they become available.

Quoted:
With no CCW in IL it's pretty easy for this perp to stay on the run.

Quoted:
If his guy heads south on Route 83, he's mine

Quoted:


Not true.  But the city does what it can to make residents jump through flaming hoops in order to legally possess them.

Handguns must have been registered as of 1982, and owners must re-register them every year.  Any handgun that was not registered by 1982 cannot be registered, and cannot be legally owned within the city limits.  Magazine capacity cannot exceed 12 rounds.  "Assault weapon" ban in place.  Basically, you're limited to fudd guns, pump shotguns, and weapons like the Garand or the SKS.  But those have to be registered yearly as well.

 

Quoted:


Well, they got him, but this pic...




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/gregw45/way2go.jpg

Quoted:
Well, they got him, but this pic...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/gregw45/way2go.jpg