By Joe Boyle
An Evergreen Park police officer is being commended for “outstanding performance of duty” for the arrest of a man who left the scene of a traffic incident.
Officer Robert Bavone was recognized during the Evergreen Park Village Board meeting on Monday night. While on duty, he witnessed a traffic crash with injuries in front of Pappy’s restaurant.
According to police, the driver exited the vehicle and began to flee the scene on foot. Bavone then called 911 and kept the driver in view as he was running through residential yards in an attempt to evade police.
Bavone continued to relay information to Central Dispatch until responding police units were able to take the offender into custody.
The offender was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury, driving under the influence of alcohol, and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
Bavone was off-duty with his wife when he made his observation of the incident.
“Without hesitation he intervened on his own time, preventing this suspect from escaping and aiding an innocent injured victim by calling the incident into 911,” said Mayor Kelly Burke during the meeting.