Miguel Alvarado, the man charged last month with stealing a Bedford Park police car and a postal van, was found dead Sunday at Cook County Jail.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Alvarado, 36, was found unresponsive in the shower area of the jail’s hospital unit. His death may have been a suicide.
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said. The office does not suspect foul play but is awaiting an autopsy and results of an independent investigation by the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force.
Alvarado, who had addresses in Ozone Park, New York, and Beaumont, Texas, was charged with vehicular hijacking and reckless driving of a police vehicle and a postal vehicle, which led to a March 19 crash in Bridgeview that left two children seriously injured.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office said Alvarado was in jail because he failed to show up for two court hearings in the case and was picked up on April 1. He was scheduled for another court hearing April 22.
Authorities said the incident started when Bedford Park police officers were called to a Speedway on March 19 at Archer Avenue and Roberts Road, where Alvarado was allegedly “causing issues” and trying to access a locked area in the back of the gas station. The officers were reportedly familiar with Alvarado, who they released earlier that day for a misdemeanor.
Alvarado jumped into the running squad car and drove away.
He drove to Chicago Ridge where the police vehicle became disabled on train tracks.
He approached a postal worker sitting in a van in Oak Lawn and pulled her out before taking the van after punching the postal worker.
Alvarado drove the van west on 97th Street into Bridgeview and was traveling at about 80 mph when he collided with a black sedan driving in his path that included an adult and her two children, ages 3 and 6.
The children suffered severe injuries including multiple broken bones for one and a brain bleed for the other. The mother was taken to Northwestern University Medical Center, and the children to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago and Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Bridgeview police said.
Alvarado hit two other vehicles in addition to the black sedan and unsuccessfully tried to steal one of those vehicles before he was wrestled to the ground by the driver.
Horrible for everyone. He should have been taken to a hospital with the first run in he had with police it’s obvious that he was not mentally stable.