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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Oct 25 2010 - 09:36:25 EDT
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=7742010
Charges filed after raid on Villa Park motel
Saturday, October 23, 2010
>From left: Filmon Habte, Dawit Gebremariam, and Yontan Araya.
Chuck Goudie
October 23, 2010 (VILLA PARK) (WLS) -- Initial concerns that a small
cell of Sudanese terror suspects had taken up residence in a west
suburban motel were unfounded, according to Villa Park Police
officials.
Last Wednesday night, housekeeping employees at Motel 6 on W.
Roosevelt Road in Villa Park called 911 to report that they had seen
two handguns in a room, police said.
According to a police statement issued late Friday, "Officers learned
that the customer who rented this motel room had no Firearms Owners
Identification Card issued by the Illinois State Police. Officers
conducted surveillance on the room and observed four subjects
attempting to enter the room. Upon approaching the subjects they ran
from officers."
Guests in the motel told the I-Team that at about 11 p.m. they had
heard a single gunshot followed by sirens and the arrival of a SWAT
unit. Witnesses also report that investigators Wednesday night were
seen testing barrels of powder linked to the men.
Late Friday, police said that those witness accounts were false; there
were no gun shots fired, SWAT units were not deployed and there was no
white powder found.
However, according to Villa Park Police Chief John G Heidelmeier, "A
number of police units responded to the scene and all four suspects
were captured and detained. Three of the four subjects had in their
possession numerous credit cards which had been recoded with different
credit card numbers. During the course of the investigation officers
recovered from the room two hand guns, two laptop computers and a
credit card skimmer used to recode credit cards."
Police have identified and charged the following individuals:
Dawit Gebremariam, male/18 years of age of Ohio was charged with
Attempt Possession of Machinery Designed to Reproduce Credit Cards and
Attempt Possession of Altered Credit Cards & Obstructing a Peace
Officer.
Filmon Habte, male/19 years of age of Ohio was charged with Attempt
Possession of Altered Credit Cards and Possession of Cannabis.
Yontan Araya, male/20 years of age of Ohio was charged with Attempt
Possession of Altered Credit Cards and Obstructing a Peace Officer.
A fourth subject was also detained during the investigation and
released without criminal charges.
The charges currently lodged against the three men are Misdemeanor
Offenses, police said. "All the offenders denied possession of the
handguns. The handguns are being sent to the DuPage County Crime Lab
to be analyzed for finger prints."
The FBI deployed two agents to Villa Park following inquiries from the
ABC 7 I-Team, but FBI spokesman Ross Rice said late Thursday, that
"There is absolutely no connection to any terrorist group and no plans
for any type of attack."
Despite the concerns of some motel guests, concerns that terrorists
had been plotting an attack, there were "no terrorist indications,"
Rice stressed.
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