A shooting that left four people injured in Old Town on Monday has been linked to two armed carjackings of rideshare drivers that unfolded Friday on the Magnificent Mile and in West Town, according to a source.
Four gunmen stepped out of a dark gray or black BMW and opened fire on the 1300 block of North Hudson on Monday afternoon. Officers in the area reported hearing shots fired around 3:45 p.m. and quickly found a shooting victim. Cops then found three more victims nearby.
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, and a 14-year-old boy was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital with a gunshot wound to his foot, according to a CPD statement. All of the victims’ conditions have been stabilized, the statement said.
Police are working to determine if the 14-year-old is also one of the shooters. CPD surveillance cameras showed four people getting out of the BMW to shoot, but only three appeared to return to the car afterward.
The BMW, which has Iowa license plates, was reportedly hijacked from an Uber driver around 3 a.m. Friday. 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.
Area Three detectives are investigating Monday’s shooting as well as the carjackings.
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