Ex-con found guilty of attempted murder of 2 Romeoville police officers

A convicted felon cursed out a Will County judge who found him guilty of attempting to murder two police officers during a 2023 shootout in a Romeoville neighborhood.

Judge Art Smigielski rendered his verdict on Monday afternoon following the 16-day bench trial of Samer Hernandez-Abdallah, 31, of Berwyn, who served as his own lawyer.

“[Expletive] you, [expletive],” said Hernandez-Abdallah to Smigielski as Will County sheriff’s deputies lead him out of the packed courtroom.

At the time of the 2023 incident, Hernandez-Abdallah was on parole from prison.

Hernandez-Abdallah was found guilty of the attempted first-degree murder of Romeoville police officers Dominic Thielmann and Francisco Garcia during the shootout.

Garcia felt a bullet whizzing past his head and avoided the gunfire by diving to the ground, according to Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Fleszewski.

But Thielmann was shot in the face and suffered a “horrific and debilitating” injuries that almost ended his life, Fleszewski said.

During closing arguments on Friday, Fleszewski played body camera video depicting the shootout between Thielmann and Hernandez-Abdallah. The video shows Thielmann falling on the ground after getting shot and struggling to breath.

Before the shooting, officers were searching for a stolen vehicle on May 25, 2023 in the Lakewood Falls neighborhood of Romeoville, according to a statement at the time from the Romeoville Police Department.

When the officers approached the vehicle, Hernandez-Abdallah fled on foot from the vehicle and fired shots at the officers, police said.

Closing arguments lasted about four hours on Friday because at least three of those hours were taken up by Hernandez-Abdallah. He repeatedly referred to himself as “the defendant.”

The marathon closing argument from Hernandez-Abdallah lasted long enough that Smigielski had to allow a brief break for the courtroom staff.

At one point, the court reporter and the stand-by attorney for Hernandez-Abdallah were switched out with a new person.

Hernandez-Abdallah denied there was proof that Thielmann had been shot, even though prosecutors played the officer’s body camera video that depicted the shooting.

Hernandez-Abdallah claimed there were other people inside the vehicle. He said that because he was the only one arrested, he’s been made the “fall guy.”

He claimed he never fired a gun and would never do so.

“I have a lot to live for,” Hernandez-Abdallah said.

Prosecutors objected when Hernandez-Abdallah said, “My heart goes out to the family.” Smigielski told him, “This is not the time for you to address the family.”

Just when it seemed that Hernandez-Abdallah was finished, he kept asking Smigielski to find him not guilty on all counts.

Fleszewski played videos of Hernandez-Abdallah talking to someone on the phone inside of a police interrogation room.

The videos show Hernandez-Abdallah saying he couldn’t be charged in connection with the shooting because officers were not able to find his fingerprints or a firearm.

“Well guess what? We have all that,” Fleszewski told Smigielski.

Fleszewski played another video where Hernandez-Abdallah said officers could not find any gunshot residue linking him to the shooting.

“We got that too,” Fleszewski said.