Two hijackers displayed a handgun and a rifle to take a man’s SUV during a bump-n-run hijacking in River North on Tuesday evening, police said. No arrests have been made.
Officer Ronald Westbrooks, a CPD spokesperson, said it happened as a 23-year-old man was driving a 23-year-old female passenger on the 500 block of North Kingsbury around 6:14 p.m.
As the man approached a stop sign, a gray Nissan Sentra bumped the rear of his red 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, Westbrooks said. The victim got out to look for damage to his car and came face-to-face with a couple of armed men who exited the Sentra.
The offenders demanded his keys while displaying a pistol and a rifle or Draco-style mini AK-47 pistol, according to officers at the scene.
Both gunmen drove away with the victim’s SUV, and they were followed by an accomplice who drove the Sentra they arrived in, Westbrooks said.
He said the suspects are three Black men between 20- and 25-years-old. They stand 5’10” to 6-feet tall, and one of them was wearing a black jacket.
According to the city of Chicago’s optimistically-named “violence reduction dashboard,” there were 66 carjacking “victimizations” between November 30 and December 6 — up 74% compared to the same week last year.
“Victimizations” refers to the number of people in carjacked vehicles, not necessarily the number of crimes committed. If two people are in a car when it gets hijacked, that counts as two “victimizations” but only one hijacking. The number of carjackings reported during the week will not be available until next Monday because the city embargoes crime stats for a week.
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