A man who has two gun cases pending in Lake County is charged with hijacking a man’s car in West Rogers Park this month — and prosecutors said he told police in a video recorded interview that he shot someone to death during another robbery. But prosecutors haven’t charged him with that.
The North Side carjacking took place around 6 a.m. on December 1 in the 7000 block of North California.
A 47-year-old man was sitting in his car as it warmed up when a man wearing a ski mask opened his driver’s door, displayed a handgun with an extended ammunition magazine, and ordered him to “get out of the f*cking car,” Assistant State’s Attorney Morgan Muslin said.
As the victim struggled to unbuckle his seatbelt, the gunman reached into the car and pulled him out. He then hit the victim in the head and climbed behind the wheel.
That’s when another car, allegedly driven by 23-year-old Julius Flowers, pulled up. Flowers yelled to the gunman that he should get the victim’s phone, too, according to Muslin. She said Flowers’ face was not covered during the exchange.
Investigators found the victim’s car in Evanston about 30 minutes later. Two fingerprints on the driver’s door matched Flowers, Muslin said.
More than a week later, state troopers came across a freshly-hijacked car on the Dan Ryan Expressway near 63rd Street, Muslin said. The vehicle sped away when the troopers tried to pull it over, but a police airplane followed the car from above until it crashed on the West Side.
Muslin said that Flowers was driving the vehicle and Isiah Walker, 22, was in the passenger seat. They both ran from the car, and Walker dropped a loaded handgun as he sprinted away, according to Muslin. Both men were arrested.
Investigators determined that Walker was the gunman in the West Rogers Park hijacking because he failed to cover a distinctive tattoo above his eye with his ski mask, according to Muslin. They also allegedly located video footage of Walker from shortly before the hijacking to support their case.
Muslin told Judge Kelly McCarthy that Flowers recently admitted to being the gunman who shot and killed someone in another robbery, but she did not elaborate.
She said Flowers was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death in 2019. As a juvenile, he was adjudicated delinquent for disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a weapon.
Prosecutors charged Flowers with vehicular hijacking, armed robbery with a firearm, and robbery. Walker, who was on parole for a gun conviction at the time of the alleged hijacking, is charged with vehicular hijacking and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. Muslin said he has previous convictions for possessing a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated battery.
Judge McCarthy ordered them both held without bail.
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