Update February 8, 2022: Paul Tate pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen motor vehicle in exchange for a three-year sentence, according to court records.
A Des Plaines man faces felony charges after he allegedly crashed a stolen car into a Loop jewelry store on Sunday afternoon. Incredibly, the accused man is on bail, awaiting trial for trespassing at a River North Walgreens during widespread looting on June 1. A police officer was allegedly struck by a get-away truck in that incident.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in Sunday’s crash, which unfolded near Wacker and Michigan around 4 p.m.
Police officers who tried to pull the stolen car over for a traffic violation reported that it sped away from them just north of the river on Michigan Avenue. The stolen car fled “at a high rate of speed,” but the officers did not chase after it, according to a CPD statement.
Seconds after crossing the Michigan Avenue bridge, the stolen car slammed through the front of Nakamol jewelry, 336 North Michigan. Officers quickly arrived at the crash scene and saw 22-year-old Paul Tate running through the store, prosecutors said. He was arrested after a short foot chase, and police determined that he was the driver of the car, according to the state.
Workers surveying the damage. They look devastated. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/PvYp5ehEYK
— Steven Graves (@StevenGravesTV) September 27, 2020
Prosecutors said the car’s owner reported the vehicle stolen from a parking garage on Saturday. Its ignition was peeled when police inspected it at the crash scene.
Tate, who was scheduled to be in court today for a the pending criminal trespassing case, found himself in bond court instead. Prosecutors there charged him with possessing a stolen motor vehicle. Judge John Lyke ordered him held in lieu of $40,000 bail. Tate will be required to go on electronic monitoring if he can post the mandatory $4,000 deposit bond, Lyke ordered.
