Man charged after threatening to kill Wilmington officers

A man who said he intended to kill officers of the Wilmington Police Department is in the county jail on felony charges. While on routine patrol in the early hours of Sunday, July 7, an officer located an occupied vehicle that appeared to have been involved in an accident parked in the parking lot of a business in the 800 block of East Baltimore Street. The business had been closed for several hours. When the officer approached the occupant, later identified as Larry D. Thomas, 26, of Chicago, he immediately became suspicious as Thomas started telling different versions of stories as to why he was at the location; none of which added up. Thomas became noticeably nervous while speaking with responding officers, and stated that he was going to leave the vehicle in the lot until morning, but that he wanted to get a few items out of it first. While investigating, the officer located a loaded semi-automatic pistol in the vehicle along with several rounds of ammunition and another weapon that was later identified as a BB gun. According to the police report, Thomas later told the officers that they were lucky that he hadn’t gotten to the loaded pistol first, because he had intended to kill both officers with it. Thomas was processed and then transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility to await bond. He was charged with felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon and threatening a public official.

Editor's note: Persons named in the police activity report are innocent of any charges until proven guilty in a court of law.