By Mitch Smith
February 8, 2014
Danny Johnson is charged in the attack on a Menard’s security guard.
(Photo courtesy Cook County sheriff’s office)
A security guard at a West Side Chicago home improvement store was dragged by a Jeep for five blocks Friday and then beaten after confronting a shoplifter who stole a set of drill bits, a Cook County prosecutor said Saturday.
Two guards from Menards, 4501 W. North Ave., approached Danny Johnson in the parking lot outside the West Humboldt Park neighborhood store. Prosecutors said the employees had watched Johnson, of the 4800 block of West Polk Street, conceal a pack of drill bits in his coat pocket while standing in line to buy other items Friday afternoon. Johnson denied taking the items and got in his car.
One of the guards stood behind Johnson’s Jeep Liberty in order to prevent him from leaving, but Johnson backed up anyway and the guard jumped onto the bumper and held onto the luggage rack in order to avoid being hit, prosecutors said.