A 14-year-old boy has been charged with participating in a mass shooting that left four people, including himself, shot in Old Town on Monday afternoon. Investigators are hopeful that the arrest will help them crack a series of armed carjackings and robberies that police have linked to a car the gunmen used.
The boy, who has not been identified by name because he is a juvenile, is charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to Chicago police. He’s accused of being one of four people who emerged from the hijacked BMW and opened fire on the 1300 block of North Hudson shortly before 4 p.m.
A 63-year-old man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his buttocks, two 16-year-old boys were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds to their legs, according to a CPD statement. All of the victims’ conditions have been stabilized, the statement said.
The 14-year-old was also shot in the foot during the hail of gunfire. He was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital for treatment under police guard.
CWBChicago reported earlier today that investigators suspected the 14-year-old was one of the shooters because four gunmen got out of the BMW but only three returned to the car before it sped from the scene. Surveillance video reportedly helped detectives confirm that the teen was one of the shooters.
The BMW, which has Iowa license plates, was hijacked from an Uber driver around 3 a.m. Friday in West Town. The driver and his passenger were on the 1000 block of North Hermitage when a white sedan pulled alongside them, and three men got out with guns, according to a CPD report.
The report said the hijackers forced the driver and passenger from the Uber and fled north on Hermitage in the 2014 BMW. The white car followed them.
Then, at 4:48 a.m., three men approached another Uber driver as he waited in his car for another assignment on the corner of Michigan and Ontario on the Mag Mile. One of the men displayed a gun, and the group took control of the victim’s black Lexus, which headed west on Ontario, police said. It was accompanied by the BMW bearing Iowa plates that was taken in West Town, according to a CPD report.
In a community alert about the carjackings, police said the hijackers were three Black males between the ages of 16- and 30-years-old and one Black male who’s 16- to 18-years-old.
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