Crime & Safety
Police: Oak Lawn Man Spat in Tinley Resident's Face
Tinley Park police said a man from Oak Lawn recently approached a group of four on a Tinley street, asking for a cigarette. They didn't have one and the man's alleged actions that followed led to a few battery and one drug charge.
Police said a man "under the influence of an unknown substance" recently approached a group of four, asking for a cigarette and when they didn't have one, spat in a woman's face.
Officers were called around 11:45 p.m. June 2 to the intersection of Oak Park Avenue and West Point Drive in , where a group of three men and one woman said they were approached by Julian Lopez, 22, of the 9300 block of South Austin Avenue in Oak Lawn. Lopez asked the four if they had a cigarette he could smoke and the woman answered him.
"She told (Lopez) that they had smoked their last cigarette," the report said. "He said to (the victim), 'I was not talking to you b----.' (The victim) told Julian not to call her a b----. Julian then spit in (her) face and attempted to punch her, but scratched her on her left arm."
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Police said the nail marks were on the victim's arm when they arrived. After he reportedly spat in the woman's face, one of the men in the group stepped in front of him. Lopez then punched the man in the face, according to the report. He also hit a second man in the jaw who tried to quell his anger, police said.
Lopez insisted he was acting in self defense.
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" … He advised me that all of them came after him and he did not do anything," an officer wrote in the report. "I asked Julian what happened and they said they attacked him for no reason and that there was more of them but they ran."
He complained of pain in his left shoulder but refused medical treatment, police said. He also "appeared to be slightly under the influence of an unknown substance," according to the report. Police said they found a bag of marijuana in his pants while placing him under arrest.
He was charged with three counts of battery and one count of possession of marijuana. His rap sheet includes an August 2011 conviction of an Oak Lawn domestic battery, the police report said. He was on probation at the time of the alleged spitting incident.
Read more police news on Oak Lawn Patch, or on Tinley Park Patch.
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