Crime & Safety
Police Investigating Battery of Oswego Boy
An 8-year-old Oswego boy was assaulted near his home Oct. 27. His parents told the Aurora Beacon News they believe it was an abduction attempt, but police aren't classifying it as such.
continue to investigate the case of an 8-year-old boy who was assaulted last week near his home in the 200 block of Monroe Street.
At about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27, the boy was walking in the neighborhood when he was grabbed from behind by the shoulder by a man. The adult then pushed the boy to the ground and ran from the area, according to an Oswego police press release.
According to a report in Friday’s Aurora Beacon News, the boy’s parents believe the incident to be an attempted abduction, and said police should have issued a community alert.
Find out what's happening in Oswegowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Police are classifying the incident as a battery, and do not believe an abduction attempt was made. Just one day before, a student at Greenman Elementary School in Aurora reported that a man tried to abduct her before school.
“(The Aurora) incident was taken into consideration when investigating this, but based on the description of the suspect in both cases and the fact that no vehicle was seen in this case, we had no reason to believe these two cases were related,” said Rob Sherwood, Oswego Police Department’s media relations officer.
Find out what's happening in Oswegowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In the Aurora case, the man was described as a Hispanic male about 5-feet, 10-inches tall with facial hair, driving a dark full-size pick-up truck. The Oswego press release said the suspect here is a light-skinned male, and Sherwood said he was described as much shorter. Also, no vehicle was seen in the area, Sherwood said.
As for issuing a community alert after the incident, Sherwood said there is no common threshold used to measure when such action is needed.
“It’s done on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “There are a lot of variables. If anything, we try to err on the side of caution, and if we have a reason to issue a community alert, we will. But after talking to the officers involved and having the information we did, we decided to classify this as a battery.”
Sherwood said officers continue to work the case, but urged parents to remain vigilant and continue talking to their children about stranger danger.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
