Stabbing At Minooka Business: Paroled Suspect Captured In Arby's

MINOOKA, IL — A 52-year-old employee at the Menasha Packaging plant stabbed another employee outside their business and then ran all the way to the Arby's restaurant near Interstate 80, where he was captured, Minooka Police Chief Justin Meyer told Joliet Patch on Friday evening.

About two-and-a-half hours after the stabbing, Grundy County SWAT team members found the stabbing suspect, Frederick Damico of Park Forest, inside the Arby's fast-food restaurant near the Interstate 80 exit for Minooka. Damico was taken away in handcuffs and brought to the Grundy County Jail, where he was booked into custody in connection with Friday's work-place stabbing, Meyer said.

At the same time that police had blanketed the entire Minooka region, trying to find a stabbing suspect, someone driving a stolen car came into town, prompting police to turn their attention to that incident, Meyer said.

The stolen car went west and then headed back east on Minooka Road as police chased after it, Meyer said. Officers put down stop sticks on Minooka Road and the car came to a stop on Ridge Road near the cemetery. Joliet Patch saw several police officers, with several SWAT team members standing nearby, put the Joliet resident into the backseat of the Minooka police car pictured above.

Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley said a gun was recovered from the Joliet teenager driving the stolen car. By 7 p.m., Briley told Joliet Patch the suspect was in the Grundy County Jail, and identified him as 19-year-old Joliet resident Christopher Steven Craig-Farrier of the 300 block of Sherman Street on the city's east side.

Craig-Farrier is charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, no valid driver's license, possessing a stolen car, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and resisting a police officer.

Briley said the 2015 black Nissan was stolen out of Joliet.

As for the Menasha Packaging victim, Chief Meyer of Minooka said the employee suffered multiple stab wounds. The man was rushed to St. Joe's hospital in Joliet. Meyer said he did not know how serious the victim's stab wounds were as of Friday evening.

Around 3:30 p.m. Joliet Patch saw numerous police officers, emergency management officials and firefighter/paramedics converge upon the 500 block of International Parkway in the industrial area of Minooka. The parking lot became their police command center to investigate the work-place stabbing and conduct a manhunt for Damico, who was paroled from the Illinois Department of Corrections last fall.

At times, several police cars traveling speeds of roughly 100 mph or faster were zipping up and down Minooka Road heading toward Ridge Road.

At that moment, Sheriff Briley said, police thought the man driving the stolen car could be their stabbing suspect; he had circled the parking lot of Menasha Packaging while there was already a huge police presence nearby looking for the elusive stabbing suspect.

Turns out, these were totally unrelated crimes, Briley said.

By 5 p.m., Briley said, a deputy with the Grundy County Sheriff's Office went into the Arby's restaurant and spotted a man who looked like the stabbing suspect, Damico.

The man gave the sheriff's deputy his name, and the deputy realized Damico was the suspect that police were trying to find, the Grundy sheriff said. Illinois Department of Corrections records indicate Damico was let out of prison last October.

Meyer said several knives were later recovered by police, but authorities are awaiting forensic testing to determine whether any of the weapons were used in the Menasha Packaging stabbing.

Meyer wanted to thank the Channahon Police Department, the Grundy County Sheriff's Office, the Grundy County's SWAT team unit, Minooka Fire Protection District, Morris police and fire, the Will County Sheriff's Office, the Illinois State Police and Grundy County Emergency Management Agency for all their help on Friday investigating both serious crimes.

Patch asked Sheriff Briley whether Friday's events were a terrific day for Minooka and Grundy County law enforcement?

"Yes, very chaotic, but two bad guys in jail. Good police work," he proclaimed.