#12: Man charged with shooting co-worker while on affordable bail for Lincoln Park carjacking

A Chicago man who posted just $5,000 to get out of jail on a pending Lincoln Park carjacking case was charged Friday with shooting a co-worker while he worked as a security guard at a Family Dollar store.

Isaiah McMiller is the 12th person charged with shooting, killing, or trying to kill someone in Chicago this year while on bail for other serious felonies.

Now, CWB fans may remember Miller. We told you about him in September after he was charged in that Lincoln Park vehicular hijacking.

Prosecutors said the carjacking victim was sitting in his car on the 900 block of West Armitage on May 30 when McMiller, Joseph Perry, and a third person pulled him from the car, took his valuables, and drove away.

Some of the victim’s credit cards were used at a gas station near Aurora about an hour after the crime. According to prosecutors, investigators subsequently gathered surveillance images of the three men who used the victim’s cards and eventually identified two of them as McMiller and Perry.

Judge David Navarro set his bail at $50,000, which required a deposit of $5,000 to get out of jail.

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Despite having a pending case for vehicular hijacking, McMiller recently landed a job with a private security company and went to work at a Family Dollar store on the 100 block of South Laramie, according to his defense attorney and police.

At closing time on Wednesday, store employees were wrapping up the day’s business as McMiller escorted the last customer out to the parking lot.

Surveillance video of the lot allegedly shows him pulling a gun from his pocket, manipulating it, and then turning to face the store. His hand “jolts back,” but no muzzle flash is visible because the gun was shielded from the camera by his body, Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Burkhardt said during a bond court hearing Friday.

The bullet flew through the store’s front door and struck a 37-year-old female cashier in her left leg, Burkhardt alleged. He said McMiller then went inside and helped his coworkers render aid until first responders arrived.

McMiller spoke with cops in conversations recorded on their bodyworn cameras, and they let him go. Investigators later took him into custody after they reviewed video of the incident, Burkhardt said.

Prosecutors on Friday charged McMiller, 21, with aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm. Judge Susana Ortiz set bail in the shooting at $500,000 and ordered him to go onto electronic monitoring if he can post a 10% deposit bond. She also ordered him held without bail for violating the terms of release in his carjacking case.

As a side note, McMiller and Perry were co-defendants in another criminal case, too.

In May 2018, a 54-year-old man told police Perry and McMiller were two members of a group that mugged him on the 2000 block of West Devon. CPD bodycams recorded McMiller telling cops that “Joseph” had the victim’s stolen phone.

Perry is also seen on bodycam footage telling cops, “I did not take the phone, but I was there…Isaiah [McMiller] took it and gave it to me afterward.” Perry had the victim’s phone, police said.

Less than a month later, Judge Marvin Luckman accepted a guilty plea to reduced charges of theft from Perry and McMiller in exchange for sentences of 18-months court supervision and six days of community service, according to court records.

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