EXCHANGE: Rookie cop was in training during bank robbery

Dispatch said there was an armed robbery at 1 Heritage Drive, and the suspect was heading west toward Illinois Route 102 in a small black SUV.

A 14-year veteran of the Bourbonnais Police Department, Bukowski knew Bank of Bourbonnais had been robbed and drove up Brown Boulevard with Hughes, who just graduated from the police academy last month, sitting in the passenger seat.

The vehicle matched the description, and he kept rubbing his head and putting his arm on the passenger seat's headrest.

The suspect stopped briefly before backing into a grassy ditch, starting a pursuit that wove through neighborhoods and school zones.

Hughes then spotted the vehicle, and the pursuit eventually reached U.S. Route 45/52, where the suspect sideswiped a vehicle before reaching speeds in excess of 90 mph.

After leading police for three miles, the suspect, David J. McDonald, 53, of Orland Park, crashed near the old Cigna building and was arrested.

[...] the pursuit brought Hughes back to his childhood living room, where he watched 'Cops' with his late stepfather, Ron Hardiman, who passed away when Hughes was in fifth grade.

With a string of bank robberies hitting the area toward the end of last year, he increased patrols at banks and businesses, and that positioning enabled his officers to arrest McDonald, who bonded out of jail last weekend.