Police standoff ended with text: ‘I’m trying to watch the Lakers game — come out’
Police credit outreach worker for bringing safe end to Roseland situation
Donnell Gardner had a basketball game to watch.
But the outreach worker with the Chicago CRED anti-violence program was busy Friday night helping Chicago police officers negotiate with a man holed up in a home in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.
He kept texting the man, encouraging him to surrender and telling him he didn’t want him to die in a shootout. Finally, Gardner found a way to get through to the man. He texted: “I’m trying to watch the Lakers game, come on out.”
And the man walked out with his hands in his air.
“It could have ended badly,” said Glenn White, commander of the Calumet police district. “I told him he was an integral part of this hostage negotiation, and we are indebted to you.”
The tense situation began at 2:45 p.m., about seven hours before Angelo Blair surrendered.
Blair, 32, is accused of slamming his girlfriend’s head on a car during an argument outside their home near 120th and Indiana. A neighbor witnessed the violence and yelled at Blair to stop, police said. Blair went into the home and returned with a handgun, allegedly firing at the neighbor, a retired Cook County sheriff’s officer, police said.
Blair’s girlfriend ran into the home and left with their two children. But when officers arrived, Blair was still in the home.
Gardner went to the scene because he’s a cousin of Blair’s girlfriend.
White said his officers’ efforts to contact Blair on the phone were “ineffective.” The officers also used a public-address system to try to persuade Blair to come out, but he wasn’t responding to that, either.
“SWAT wanted to use [Gardner] as a last resort before we made entry,” the commander said.
Gardner and Blair exchanged text messages over several hours.
“I said, ‘This is Chally Wally,’ ” Gardner said, referring to his nickname on the street.
Gardner said he told Blair not to “let down” his girlfriend and the couple’s children.
“He was scared. I said, ‘They won’t kill you. I’m right here.’”
Gardner said he’d been informally counseling Blair over the past year about his “anger-management problem.”
But Gardner thinks Blair felt his manhood was questioned when the neighbor tried to intervene in his fight with his girlfriend. He just couldn’t control his temper.
In his last text to Blair, Gardner mentioned he was missing the Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff game with the Miami Heat.
That’s when Blair finally said, “I’m fixing to come out.”
Gardner said they spoke briefly outside the home and Blair apologized for fighting with his girlfriend and the standoff, saying, “Tell her I didn’t mean to pull all of this.”
Blair is charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, domestic battery and criminal damage to property. A Cook County judge has ordered him held on $250,000 bail.
Gardner, 47, said he grew up in the nowdemolished Robert Taylor Homes near 45th and Federal and, coincidentally, one of the hostage negotiators knew him from those public-housing high-rises. Gardner said the officer was always trying to arrest him. Gardner has been in prison several times. Now, he uses his extensive network of contacts from the street to try to resolve conflicts before they turn deadly. He said he’s even gotten guys to put their guns down and have a fistfight.
Peter Cunningham, a spokesman for Chicago CRED, said his and other organizations have invested a total of $10 million in Roseland this year on outreach, counseling, life coaches and employment programs.
It’s difficult to know exactly how much the work of Chicago CRED and other community organizations may have contributed to reducing violence this year.
Killings have risen 35% this year in the Calumet district, which includes Roseland, compared with the same period of 2019.
Still, Gardner said he’s sure he’s made a difference.
“I’m all about saving lives in the streets,” he said.
Gardner added he was grateful about how the police reacted Friday.
“They thanked me,” he said. “They said, ‘We appreciate you for the work you do.’”