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Left to right: Jamaal Ashshaheed; Javion Bush; Jamar Jarvis and Raynell Lanford | CPD
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Four teenagers who faced state carjacking charges for taking an off-duty Chicago police officer’s vehicle in Edgewater last October have now been slapped with a federal indictment in the case.
A federal grand jury charged 18-year-olds Jamar Jarvis and Javion Bush along with 19-year-olds Raynell Lanford and Jamaal Ashsaheed with the Oct. 18th incident in the 5800 block of North Winthrop.
After taking the off-duty cop’s Lexus shortly after midnight, Jarvis, Lanford, and Ashsaheed drove onto Lake Shore Drive where officers working in the Town Hall (19th) Police District intercepted the vehicle and followed it south as members of the FBI’s Carjacking Task Force and the Chicago Police Department helicopter unit joined in.
Officers eventually pulled the vehicle over in the 5500 block of South Lake Shore drive and then chased the occupants on foot before each was arrested. Police said a gun was found inside the stolen car.
The new federal indictment charges Jarvis, Lanford, and Ashsaheed with conspiring to commit carjacking. The three also face a federal charge of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Bush is charged with being an accessory after-the-fact to the carjacking, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago said in a statement.
Jarvis, Lanford, and Ashsaheed are also charged with conspiring to commit another carjacking shortly before the crew targeted the off-duty officer.
In that case, Lanford allegedly displayed a firearm while unsuccessfully attempting to take a man’s Acura sedan on Marine Drive between Montrose and Wilson in the Uptown neighborhood.
Federal authorities today said using a firearm in connection with a carjacking carries a maximum sentence of life in prison while carjacking and attempted carjacking carry possible sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
All four men have been jailed by Cook County since they were taken into custody.
