Shooting At Crest Hill Business: Employee Returns Wearing All Black, Armed With Gun, Prosecutors Say

CREST HILL, IL — Last week's shooting inside a Crest Hill trucking business along the busy North Broadway Street corridor has resulted in 26-year-old Lockport resident Arturas Proskurinas Jr. losing his pretrial detention hearing under the SAFE-T Act. Will County Judge Donald DeWilkins rendered the decision. Proskurinas comes from the 16600 block of West Adobe Drive, his jail logs show.

According to the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition, around 3:30 p.m. on May 28, Crest Hill police responded to the Dow Chemical property at 2050 N. Broadway for a report of a white man with a gun. Emergency dispatchers notified the officers that the gunman was inside the 911 caller's office armed with a pistol. The business owner, Mindaugas "Mike" Navickis, relayed that he owns the building and runs a trucking company on the second floor. The defendant, Proskurinas, is one of several employees at his business.

The owner informed the officers that he was inside his office, with the defendant, working as usual that day when he noticed Proskurinas "kept getting off track with his work and had to be redirected," prosecutors outlined.

Around 2 p.m., Proskurinas said he was heading home for lunch; when he returned, he had changed his clothes. He was now wearing all black, and "his behavior was now aggressive and had his aggressive dog with him," court files indicated.

Proskurinas then told his boss he needed to leave the second-floor office to have a discussion. The owner later told the police he refused to do that because he knew there were video security cameras where they were currently at. Moments later, according to prosecutors, Proskurinas began making comments about his mother, Ala, who previously worked at the trucking business, but she recently quit.

"Defendant told Mike he needed to apologize to his mom," prosecutors said. "Mike then noticed defendant had a handgun in his waistband and noticed defendant made a motion like he was going to pull out the gun."

That's when the business owner ran from his office and yelled for the other employees to run out as well, according to prosecutors.

"Mike said he never heard a gunshot," court documents revealed.

Crest Hill police later interviewed a female worker who heard a gunshot fired inside their building. According to court documents, officers smelled the odor of a gun discharge, and when they located Proskurinas, he was in a hallway with his large dog.

"Defendant was told to go to his knees and he complied," prosecutors told Judge DeWilkins. "He was immediately taken into custody and asked for a lawyer."

On the building surveillance video, the business owner was seen running away as Proskurinas pulled out a gun, racked the weapon and pointed it in the direction of the owner, prosecutors stated.

Crest Hill police recovered a gun left on a couch at the end of the hallway where Proskurinas was found; the officers also saw a small hole in the back of the couch and a loaded handgun magazine on a windowsill not far from the gun, court documents show.

As for Proskurinas, he does not have a concealed carry license, prosecutors advised Judge DeWilkins.

"Police tried to locate the bullet but it went through the couch and into the wall, where it was unable to be found because it went completely through the wall and exited the exterior of the building," the petition indicated. "The firearm was examined and the spent casing was still in the chamber."

As for the criminal complaint, the burglary charge states that the young man from Lockport entered Vilano Trucking at 2050 N. Broadway St. to commit the crime of intimidation, and he wanted the business owner to apologize to his mother. The reckless discharge of a firearm offense s alleges that Proskurinas discharged his gun, endangering the employees who work at Vilano Trucking.