Man With Rifle Threatens Wife; Police Set Up Perimeter Around Home

Niles police responded to a domestic dispute in which a husband, Robert R. Larson, 50, had a loaded rifle and was refusing to let his wife leave their home, in the 6600 block of Albion, on April 21 at about 9:45 p.m.

Police set up a perimeter around the home, but then learned the victim had fled. They reached the husband on his cell phone, and he complied with their request to come out of the home. He acknowledged having two BB guns, which police found in searching the home, but the wife said they weren't the ones he used during the incident. Further searching of the home yielded a 22 caliber Remington rifle, which the wife said was the one he had during the domestic dispute.

When police interviewed the wife, she said her husband had come home early in a bad mood  and got progressively more agitated, kicking and yelling. She decided to leave to go to a neighbor's home, but saw her husband was holding a loaded rifle. She asked him what he was going to do with it, and he said he was going to clean it. When she walked toward the door, he blocked her path and told her she couldn't leave--although the rifle was in the living room at that point. She told him she was calling the police and he let her leave. 

An assistant state's attorney at the scene set the charges as possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owners Identity Card and possession of ammunition without a FOID card. Each charge carries a possible penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Larson's court date is June 1 at 10:30 a.m. in Room 103 of the Skokie branch of the Cook County courts.