DUI Driver, and Cop, Sustain Injuries in Arrest

Joshua J. Kemper, of Lyons, is being held on a $150,000 bail for fleeing and eluding police, two counts of felony DUI, resisting arrest and 14 traffic violations - all after a physical altercation that left both an arresting officer and Kemper injured, as reported by the Chicago Sun Times.

A Riverside police officer was injured when he used his baton to break though Kemper's passenger car window to try and stop Kemper's vehicle from its reverse course through a busy Walgreens parking lot in Berwyn on Christmas Eve.

Kemper, wanted on an active Cook County warrant for a prior DUI arrest, had allegedly already caused a commotion in a Stone Park bar earlier the same evening. 

Riverside Police reported that at approximately 8:30 p.m. on December 24, they witnessed a gray Cadillac run a red light on 26^th and Des Plaines - A parked police vehicle was almost struck in the illegal maneuver.  Then, in an attempt to elude police, the Cadillac made a rapid U-turn and sped up Des Plaines.

The officer switched off his lights and followed the Cadillac as it entered a shopping center parking lot at Ogden and Oak Park in Berwyn.  Once there, the Cadillac driver spied the police cruiser and put his car into reverse to flee the area.

The Cadillac driver was ordered to stop but refused.

Several customers in the lot were put in harm's way as the Cadillac continued its backward route.  It was at this time that the arresting officer resorted to striking the passenger window with his baton - a minimum of four times - and broke through the window. 

The officer planned on entering the window to reach the driver and ultimately stop the car.  Once inside, the driver, now identified as Joshua J. Kemper, tried to keep driving with the officer in the passenger seat.

Several minutes of fighting ensued between the two in the moving vehicle.  Eventually Kemper was forcibly taken into custody. 

The officer and driver both suffered from minor injuries.  Kemper was admitted into Berwyn's Mac Neal Hospital.  After his injuries were treated, he was again transferred back into police custody that same night. 

Many other area police departments assisted Riverside Police officers during the incident and arrest.

In the investigation that followed, it was discovered that Kemper was also involved in a disturbance, some time earlier the same evening of his DUI arrest, at a bar in Stone Park.

Tom Weitzel, the Riverside Police Chief, said of the incident, "I am extremely proud of the work done by my personnel in this incident.  The officer acted properly in turning off his lights and following the offender until he came to a stop in the Walgreens parking lot. Mr. Kemper was driving on a suspended license for a prior DUI conviction and should never have been behind the wheel of a vehicle in the first place. The outcome could have been much worse for the driving public on Christmas Eve if not for the desire of Riverside officers to remove impaired drivers from our roadways."

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