Prosecutors say a 19-year-old man brought a woman and three children along as he apparently directed an Uber driver into an armed carjacking ambush on the city’s South Side this week. The woman and kids weren’t injured, but their rideshare driver did get walloped in the head with a pistol, according to the allegations.
Corey Williams ordered the Uber ride Monday for himself, a woman, and three kids, then asked the driver to pull into an alley after they arrived at their destination, prosecutors said. The driver refused to enter the alley, and the woman got out of the car with the kids.
Suddenly, three masked men who were each armed with a handgun ran up to the car as Williams allegedly opened the driver’s side door. He had a gun, too, prosecutors said.
Williams hit the 27-year-old driver in the back of his head with a handgun and got into the driver’s seat while the other three men climbed into the other seats, according to prosecutors. The car sped away.
Around noon on Wednesday, a Chicago police license plate reader noticed the hijacked car traveling in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. Patrol officers found the car and saw Williams driving it, but he refused to pull over, prosecutors said.
Cops arrested Williams after he allegedly crashed the car a short time later. He was carrying the victim’s ID and three of the victim’s credit cards, according to prosecutors. A loaded handgun was allegedly found on the driver’s floorboard of the wrecked car. The Uber driver later identified Williams in a line-up as the person who pistol-whipped him and drove away with his car, prosecutors said.
Williams was on bail for a pending felony charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possessing a defaced firearm at the time of the alleged carjacking. He was recently charged with escaping electronic monitoring in that case, too.
Prosecutors charged him Thursday with felony counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, armed robbery with a firearm, possession of a controlled substance. He’s also charged with a misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident.
Judge David Navarro ordered him held without bail.
