Update January 28, 9:18 a.m. — The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the passenger as Filbert Elonge of Arlington Heights. The driver’s name has not been released, but the car both men were riding in is registered to a 28-year-old man who lives on the 4600 block of North Malden in Uptown, according to a CPD report. He has a history of arrests for manufacture-delivery of cannabis and cocaine as well as having street gang contact while on parole, according to police data.
Two men are dead after someone shot into their car from another vehicle as they traveled along Wilson Avenue in Uptown on Thursday evening, police said. According to witnesses, the victims’ car crashed into a parked vehicle and burst into flames with the driver trapped inside.
Police responded to calls of shots fired on the 1500 block of West Wilson at 5:06 p.m. and found the victims’ gray Mazda on the side of the road with flames beginning to emerge from its engine, according to CPD and witnesses.
Officers administered CPR to the passenger while another officer tried unsuccessfully to remove the driver before the flames consumed the vehicle’s cabin. Both men died.
Witnesses said a gunman fired on the men from a large white pickup truck with a weapon that appeared to generate automatic gunfire. Police reported finding different kinds of casings littered along a one-block stretch of Wilson Avenue, including some that were ejected from a rifle.
Police said the passenger was a 28-year-old man, but he was not publicly identified. CWBChicago learned through a source that he was paroled in December on a forgery charge. He has previous felony convictions for two robberies, unlawful use of a weapon, and narcotics.
Authorities have not been able to identify the driver.
Investigators are exploring the possibility that the killings are linked to a “shots fired” incident reported near Montrose and Western about 30 minutes before the murders. Officers who responded to calls of a man firing shots at a white vehicle found several shell casings lying in an alley near a bank, but no injuries were reported. Some witnesses said the gunman fled in a small sedan, although they said the car was maroon, not gray like the shooting victims’ vehicle.
Area Three detectives are handling the case.