ELMHURST, IL – A threat was believed to have been made last month during a couple of Elmhurst neighbors’ argument over social media posts involving “two transsexual children in the same house,” police said in a report.
Patch obtained the report, with the names of both neighbors blacked out. Separated by a house, they live in the 500 block of South Mitchell Avenue.
Mid-afternoon June 21, the first neighbor banged on the door of the second neighbor’s with his fist, police said. The first neighbor was reported to be yelling and swearing and wanted to argue about the second neighbor’s Facebook posts.
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The men continued to discuss the issue in the front yard at the second neighbor’s house.
The second neighbor did not report the incident until the next day, saying he needed time to think about it, the report said. He said he did not want charges filed, but would like it to be known that the neighbor’s behavior was unacceptable, the report said.
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In a phone call, police interviewed the wife of the first neighbor. She said her husband was in a “rage state because he believed the safety of his family and children were jeopardized” by online comments, according to the report. She said her name was used in the comments.
In an interview at the police station, the first neighbor said he had been neighbors with the other man for a half dozen years. He said he had even been invited into the neighbor’s house before.
The first neighbor said he normally sought to ignore the other’s Facebook comments, but believed the second neighbor was targeting his family because they had two transsexual children, police said. He said online comments referred to them as pedophiles, groomers, child mutilators and evil, according to the report.
The first neighbor also said that while on the sidewalk, he said something to the effect of “I wish it were the ’80s, so I could kick your ass,” the report said. He said this was the only thing he said that may have led the other to believe he wanted to fight.
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He said he wasn’t physically close to the second neighbor when he made the statement and that they had already been separated, police said.
In the report, police confirmed certain online posts referred to the first neighbor’s family by name and called them such things as groomers. Police also said they saw the post about two children in one family being transsexual, but it did not name anyone.
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