FBI conducts tactical operations with QPD at multiple sites in Quincy Friday morning

QUINCY — The Quincy Police Department conducted an operation Friday morning with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at locations in Quincy. A tactical operation at the Atrium Hotel, 201 S. Third, started at approximately 6:45 a.m.

The FBI also had officers at 730 E. Brennan Drive behind the Quincy Town Center, on Jefferson near Sixth Street and in the 800 block of York.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Boyle with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of Illinois, said she could “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of an investigation this morning.

Becky Cramblit, public affairs officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Springfield field office, confirmed the FBI was in Quincy Friday morning “conducting a court-authorized activity.” She said the investigation is ongoing but did not provide any other details.

At least 20 officers with the FBI and the Quincy Police Department were at the Atrium on Friday morning. One FBI officer on site called it an “active” situation but offered no other details. Residents were asked to avoid that area. 

A person who asked not to be identified said she saw something being fired into the Atrium this morning, but it was unclear if it was a flash bang or tear gas.

A man living near 730 E. Brennan Drive told Muddy River News that FBI officers were seen outside the home as he was leaving to take children to school.

“They were swarming the house,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “There were probably about eight or more SUVs, including a military vehicle. I witnessed an officer get out of a big van geared up with a rifle in hand. That’s as much as I saw in person before I left. My wife was at home when they started talking over the speaker that they had a warrant and to open the door.”

The man said the FBI officers were on the scene for about one hour and left around 9 a.m.

A Quincy man living near the 800 block of York, who asked not to be identified, said he was awakened this morning to what he described as the sound of “a transformer exploding.”

“Then I looked out the window, and I saw the silhouette of an SUV and another couple of vehicles parked out there by an apartment that (law enforcement officials) were surrounding,” he said.

He said several police and FBI vehicles were parked to the north of the Cenex gas station at the northeast corner of Eighth and York.

“Over their speaker system, they were saying something like, ‘The occupants of apartment whatever number, this is the FBI. You’re surrounded. Come out wth your hands up,'” the man said. “They said that two or three times, and then I’d say five minutes went by, and then another flash-bang grenade went off. Then they repeated their courtesy wake-up call for the neighborhood, ‘Come out with your hands up.'”

A Friday morning press release issued by the Quincy Police Department said “no further information” would be released.