An Evanston resident found a 21-year-old man’s decapitated body and an undetonated explosive Tuesday a mile from campus at Fitzsimmons Park, next to Nichols Middle School, police said.
A neighbor of the school, located at 800 Greenleaf St., called police at 5:48 a.m. and said he had found the body and explosive on the ground while walking his dog, said Evanston Police Department Cmdr. Tom Guenther. Police roped off the park and surrounding blocks and called the Cook County bomb squad, which detonated the explosive. The neighbor was Dale Wyatt, 31, according to Chicago Breaking News.
Police identified the dead man as Colin Dalebroux, 21, of the 1000 block of Main Street.
The cause of the man’s death appeared to be another explosive, Guenther said. Another neighbor called police at 3:57 a.m. and reported a large explosion, but police searched the area at that time and found nothing.
Guenther said that “the condition of the deceased has yet to be determined.”
Police evacuated residents in the immediate area of the explosion and told other nearby residents to stay in their homes, Guenther said.
Neighbor Jim Parks heard the initial explosion but thought it was lightning, he said. When he stepped out of his home at 922 Elmwood St. a few hours later, he was greeted by police.
“They said, ‘Get back in your house!'” he said.
Evanston resident Steve Kasper said he heard about the incident on the news at 8 a.m. and drove to visit the scene. He saw police interviewing the man who found the body and said the man seemed remarkably composed.
“I don’t know if any person could even come close to handling that,” Kasper said.
Police also surrounded 1012 Main St., an apartment building a few blocks southwest of Fitzsimmons Park. An officer guarding the building said police were investigating it in relation to the incident at the park.
Dalebroux dealt with mental health issues, according to a Wednesday EPD news release. Police will interview his health care providers to learn more about his mental state, and FBI agents are analyzing his computers.
