Terror On Ruby Street, Window Shatters, Victim Pepper Sprays Her Attacker And He Sprays Her Back: English

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet Police Department informed Patch that 37-year-old Kankakee criminal defendant Manuel Guerrero has been charged with home invasion, domestic battery, two crimes of battery and criminal damage to property.

The crime happened on Christmas Eve, just 40 minutes before Joliet residents celebrated Christmas.

According to Joliet police reports, at 11:21 p.m., the officers responded to an apartment in the 600 block of Ruby Street for a domestic disturbance and the officers heard arguing coming from the apartment.

Police spokesman Dwayne English said the incident started as an argument between Guerrero and his girlfriend at a gathering in Elwood. During the drive back to Joliet, the argument continued, and Guerrero is alleged to have struck the victim in the head and he took her phone and threw it in the backseat.

Upon arrival at the apartment in the 600 block of Ruby Street, the victim exited the vehicle and entered the apartment, locking the door behind her. Guerrero allegedly forced entry into the apartment by breaking a window in the front door, reaching inside to unlock it, and then pushing past another woman trying to prevent him from entering, the arrest report showed.

"It is alleged that Guerrero attacked the victim, punching her, pushing her down, and choking her after she pepper sprayed him in the face," English announced.

Guerrero then grabbed the pepper spray and sprayed the victim as well as her 63-year-old mother and her 13-year-old daughter, English revealed.

Guerrero allegedly pushed the victim’s mother into a wall when she tried to intervene. Guerrero was placed into custody without incident. The Kankakee native was processed at the Joliet Police Department and transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility.

This marks his fourth time in the Will County Jail, he was kept in the jail in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

This time, Guerrero was booked into the jail at 4:32 a.m. on Christmas Day. He was not released from detention under the SAFE-T-Act, jail records show.