The driver of a bullet-riddled car that fled from police in the Loop and then crashed near the Roosevelt CTA station over the weekend was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding on Monday. Police initially believed the driver had been shot in the area, but they later learned that the man actually suffered the gunshot wound to his buttocks over a week earlier, according to a CPD statement.
Lavisiea Smith, 21, was ordered held without bail for violating the terms of a narcotics case that he has pending in restorative justice court. Judge David Navarro set bail in the new case at $100,000.
The strange tale began around 7:42 p.m. Sunday when witnesses flagged down a CPD bicycle patrol in the Loop and pointed toward a parked car that had broken windows, a flat tire, and bullet holes in its glass and body, according to a CPD report and Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Carmody.
Cops watched as Smith allegedly got into the damaged car and drove away southbound from the 600 block of South Wabash. Carmody said a patrol car intercepted Smith’s vehicle, and officers approached it with their guns drawn because they didn’t know if Smith was a shooter or a victim.
When Smith saw the cops coming, he drove over a raised median, traveled on the wrong side of the street, and then ran three red lights on Roosevelt Road before he collided with another car in traffic near the CTA station, according to Carmody. The other driver was not injured.
“All this going on while you’re in this restorative justice court,” Judge Navarro said after hearing the allegations.
Paramedics who treated Smith noticed that he had “bullet holes that were not bleeding,” Carmody said. Smith later told police that he suffered the gunshot wound to his buttocks on May 22 in the Garfield Park neighborhood. During his bond court hearing Monday, Smith told Navarro that he was on his way to get the wound treated when police tried to pull him over.
Prosecutors said Smith was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile three times — for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated battery of a school employee, and possession of a controlled substance.
Smith’s defense attorney, Courtney Smallwood, said all of those cases are at least four years old. He is the father of a newborn child, Smallwood said.
As of Monday morning, investigators believed Smith’s car was shot up during an incident in the Loop on Sunday, but his gunshot wound was from another incident.
