Villa Park man charged with stalking after allegedly throwing rocks through windows of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s home
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A west suburban man was charged on Tuesday with stalking Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker after allegedly throwing rocks at the governor’s Gold Coast home, breaking three windows, according to authorities.
Adam Dabash, 38, of Villa Park, was charged with two felonies, stalking and criminal damage to property.
The Illinois State Police said the man left letters at one of the billionaire governor’s homes on two occasions in August.
After his arrest on Monday, Dabash was held for a time at the Chicago police’s Near North District station. But Cook County Criminal Court Judge William Fahy has since ordered Dabash’s release on electronic monitoring while he awaits trial.
Dabash made disparaging remarks about Pritzker upon being arrested, according to a Chicago police report, but his alleged motives remained unclear.
Pritzker on Tuesday blamed increasing political divisions for the number of violent threats against public figures in the last few years. But the governor downplayed what happened at his home compared with other incidents involving public officials.
“We have all seen where Republicans and Democrats, even when we disagreed on everything, nobody resorted to violence,” Pritzker told reporters during an unrelated event at a North Shore synagogue. “That was not a normal thing. Now you’re seeing it regularly.”
About 9:40 a.m. Monday, state troopers assigned to the governor’s executive protection unit responded to a disturbance at his home. The troopers searched the area with Chicago police, who arrested the suspect after identifying him through city surveillance camera footage, state police said.
The governor and first lady were home at the time of the incident, according to the Illinois State Police. No one was hurt.
According to a Chicago police report obtained by the Tribune, the suspect “made excited utterances without being questioned,” and stated “we have a mother f----- for a governor.” The report notes that the responding officers had not mentioned to the suspect that the vandalized home belonged to the governor.
Monday’s incident comes nearly six months after a threatening message for Pritzker was made in a phone call to the Governor’s Office of Constituent Affairs, state police have said. An Aurora man was later charged with one felony count of threatening a public official for allegedly leaving the message, in which he threatened to kill Pritzker, officials said.
The governor also received a number of threats during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Earlier this month, a man brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison and demanded to see Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, who was not in the building at the time. Authorities said the man returned later that night with a loaded assault-style rifle after posting bail, but the building was closed for a couple of hours at that point.
He reportedly again demanded to see Evers before being taken into custody a second time.
Last year, it was discovered that Evers was on a gunman’s hit list when the gunman was suspected of shooting and killing a retired judge in his home in Wisconsin. Others on that list included Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In 2020, Whitmer was targeted in a kidnapping plot.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
