Window Shatters On 6th Floor Of Will County Courthouse, Here's Why

JOLIET, IL — While the 10-story Will County Courthouse continues to be surrounded by scaffolding as contractors scale the tall building to inspect and replace several of the defective stone tiles throughout the exterior, that's not the only safety problem facing the courthouse.

The sixth floor of the courthouse is now the site of the latest hazard.

This week, the courthouse lost one of its giant sixth-floor windows. Back in 2020, a bullet round struck a first-floor window of the north side of the new courthouse during a weekend shooting outside a now-closed clothing store, but this latest window damage was not caused by gunfire.

Kevin Hedemark, the public information officer at the Will County Sheriff's Office, provided Joliet Patch with a statement in regard to the window damage on the sixth floor.

"On Saturday, May 17th at approximately 7:44 a.m., a window on the 6th floor of the Will County Courthouse was damaged," Hedemark revealed. "Following a thorough review of surveillance footage, investigators have determined that the damage was caused by severe weather that moved through the Joliet area around that time.

"There is no indication of criminal activity, and the incident appears to be weather-related."

On Jan. 15, Joliet Patch published a story headlined, "Big Piece Of Will County Building Falls Off, Nearly Hits Employees." The article revealed that a piece of exterior cement tile fell from the outside of the fifth or sixth floor of the building and nearly ended the lives of two county government staff entering the building that weekday morning.

Nobody was hurt as the stone landed just a few feet away from them.