A suburban Chicago man who dragged a federal agent with a stolen Jeep, led police on a chase topping 100 miles per hour, and was caught with two guns has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison.
Andrew Vesely, 25, of Posen, was sentenced June 9 by U.S. District Judge John F. Kness to four years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of forcibly resisting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer and one count of illegal firearm possession by a previously convicted felon. Vesely has been held in custody for just over four years, time that will be applied to his sentence, officials said.
In January 2022, Vesely had two outstanding felony warrants, was on probation for two Illinois felony convictions, and was also a suspect in the thefts of several Jeep Grand Cherokees, one of which was parked in the alley behind the house, court records show. Members of a DEA enforcement group, along with Homeland Security Investigations agents and a Posen police officer, went to his home and tried to arrest him.
When Vesely walked out of the house and approached the alley, four officers closed in to detain him. He jumped into the Jeep and started the engine before a DEA agent reached through the open driver’s door and grabbed him by the front of his coat. Vesely put the vehicle in drive as the two struggled for control, officials said. The agent lost his grip and was thrown into a row of garbage cans alongside the garage as the Jeep lurched forward, sustaining bruising in the process. As Vesely sped away, his backpack fell into the alley, and two agents fired seven shots at the fleeing vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
Vesely drove at high speed out of Posen and into the neighboring town of Markham, where police had been alerted by dispatch. Officials said Markham cops chased him on a major thoroughfare at more than 100 miles per hour through several traffic signals before Vesely crashed the Jeep into an embankment and was captured while trying to flee on foot.
The backpack he left behind allegedly contained a loaded Ruger Model 57 semiautomatic pistol and a spare magazine, both loaded with armor-piercing rounds, along with a car-key programming device, 31 key fobs, and other tools used for stealing vehicles. A search of Vesely’s room in the home turned up a second loaded semiautomatic pistol, three loaded magazines, a bulletproof vest, a police scanner, 25 key fobs, and another car-key programming device. Prosecutors claimed the armor-piercing ammunition Vesely carried was designed to penetrate the protective vests worn by the agents who arrested him.
“He was on an extremely destructive path when arrested,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, adding that without his arrest, “he probably would have killed someone or been killed within a couple of years.”
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
