A Cook County judge this afternoon set bail at $5,000 for the man who allegedly ran over a restaurant worker Friday while he worked as a Grubhub delivery driver. Judge Mary Marubio said Aamir Mohammed will be required to go onto electronic monitoring if he can post the 10% deposit bond of $500.
Prosecutors said Mohammed, 30, made Grubhub deliveries without ever receiving a driver’s license. Mohammed does not own the car that he was driving Friday, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said. Instead, the vehicle is registered to a company that loans cars to drivers in exchange for 50% of their delivery profits, according to Murphy.
A Grubhub spokesperson today said Mohammed “has never been a Grubhub driver…He was using another contracted driver’s account, which is a fraudulent misuse of our platform.”
Grubhub has canceled the contract of the driver whose account Mohammed was using, the company said.
“We support efforts to prosecute both the individual charged with the crime and the driver who owned the account to the full extent of the law,” said a Grubhub spokesperson.
Employees of Ms. T’s Southern Fried Chicken, 3343 North Broadway, called police around 6:18 p.m. May 15, 2020, after Aamir Mohammed allegedly kicked the restaurant’s door when they asked him to practice social distancing while waiting for an order.
Bijan Early, 24, and the restaurant’s owner — Early’s mother — followed Mohammed to his car and stood near the vehicle to keep him from leaving, Murphy said.
Mohammed threatened to run the women over moments before he drove into Early and dragged her for 20 to 30 feet with her body on the hood of his car and her legs underneath, according to Murphy. He allegedly slowed the car until Early fell off, then accelerated and drove over Early as he sped north on Broadway.
Early is in the intensive care unit at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with broken bones and a head injury. She has undergone surgery to repair a broken pelvis, Murphy said.
Mohammed turned himself in at the 19th District police station Saturday night. He subsequently told officers that “he’s been driving for years without a license,” according to Murphy.
Prosecutors charged Mohammed with felony counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and failure to report an accident involving injury. He is also charged with misdemeanor driving without receiving a driver’s license and leaving the scene of an accident.
His public defender, Courtney Smallwood, said Mohammed has lived in Chicago for two years. She said Mohammed asked the women to get out of his way before Early was struck and she pointed out that the women followed Mohammed to his vehicle.
Judge Marubio seemed to be leaning toward a higher bail amount, but Smallwood said Mohammed would need to contact people in India for financial help. His local contacts are stored on his phone, which he cannot access while in jail, Smallwood said.
