A Chicago man who was released on a recognizance bond when police allegedly caught him driving a stolen car in August was charged today with firing 14 rounds during a carjacking just three months later.
“An 18-year-old kid with a handgun pointed it at a victim, fired multiple shots,” Assistant State’s Attorney Franka D’Antignac told Judge Arthur Willis during a bond hearing Wednesday afternoon. “Not one. Not two. Not three. Not four, but at least fourteen shots at a moving vehicle.”
Willis ordered Anthony Blackburn, 18, held without bail.
Blackburn now has three felony cases pending, D’Antignac said, starting with a charge of possessing a stolen motor vehicle in August.
In that case, police allegedly pulled Blackburn over as he drove a car reported stolen in suburban Forest Park. Cops say they got a look at Blackburn’s face before he put the car in reverse, fled onto the Eisenhower Expressway, and then ran from the car on Cicero Avenue. He was arrested nearby.
Judge Charles Beach released him on his own recognizance and told him to stay in the house from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Then, at 2:15 p.m. on November 16, a man was driving in the 4700 block of West Polk when another driver cut him off. Blackburn emerged from the other vehicle’s back seat with a handgun, D’Antignac said.
He ran to the victim’s car and ordered him out at gunpoint, she said. But the driver accelerated instead, and Blackburn unleashed a torrent of 14 shots at the fleeing car, according to D’Antignac.
Blackburn then allegedly ran to another car parked nearby with two men inside and ordered them out at gunpoint. They complied, and he drove away with their car, D’Antignac said.
The entire scene was allegedly captured on surveillance video.
Four days later, Cicero police found the hijacked car at a motel in their city. Surveillance video shows Blackburn getting out of the hijacked car and going into a room, D’Antignac said. Police searched the room and allegedly found Blackburn inside with a loaded handgun and an extended ammunition magazine.
Prosecutors charged him with possession of a machine gun, possessing a stolen motor vehicle, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Even though he was already on bond for another stolen motor vehicle case, he got out of jail by paying a $4,000 bond, records show.
On January 12, Blackburn — who was still on bail for both of the pending cases — was arrested again after police allegedly saw him conducting hand-to-hand drug transactions on the West Side. Prosecutors said officers found him carrying 56 baggies containing heroin and $538 cash.
Judge Beach was not pleased to see Blackburn on his court call again that day. He ordered Blackburn held in lieu of $150,000 bail on the drug case and held without bail for violating bail terms in the other cases.
On Wednesday, prosecutors upgraded the November case after ballistics test matched the gun allegedly found in Blackburn’s motel room with bullet casings found at the carjacking scene. The two men in the car he hijacked that day also identified him as the person who took their vehicle and fired shots at the other driver, D’Antignac said.
The new charges filed against Blackburn on Wednesday include Class X felony aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and attempted aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm.
D’Antignac said Blackburn had convictions as a juvenile for possessing a defaced firearm, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and narcotics.
He is due back in court on February 16.
