Editor’s note: CWBChicago will post updates to this story when new information becomes available.
UPDATE 9 p.m. — The shots fired incident on Pine Grove is not related to the two carjacking incidents that occurred moments earlier, according to a source. Police believe the shooting was a targeted, intentional attack.
UPDATE 7:41 p.m. — Chicago police have detained “multiple people” in connection with these crimes and charges are pending, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill, a CPD spokesperson. A source said police recovered the Porsche, the Tucson, and arrested five people, including some adults, in Rogers Park on Thursday evening.
A violent armed robbery and carjacking team that is responsible for a string of crimes across the city, including the shooting of a Bucktown restaurant owner during a carjacking attempt last month, rolled through east Lakeview on Thursday afternoon, firing shots at one man, carjacking a woman, and trying to carjack another, according to a source and information from CPD.
No injuries were reported Thursday, but the same crew on Wednesday night pistol-whipped a driver during a carjacking in the North Park neighborhood and also pistol-whipped a clerk during a convenience store robbery in Bucktown, according to a source.
Here’s what we know:
Shortly before 4 p.m., three or four men tried to carjack a woman at gunpoint near the intersection of Sheffield and Sheridan in Lakeview. According to preliminary information, the hijacking failed, and the men fled in a Porsche Cayenne and another SUV. CPD had not finalized its report about the incident at the time of our story’s publication, according to a police spokesperson.
About five minutes later, three men confronted a woman in her car on the 700 block of West Briar, Officer Michelle Tannehill said. One of the men displayed a gun and demanded the woman’s property before all three fled in her Hyundai Tucson.
Then, around 4:10 p.m., a 20-year-old man was on the 3500 block of North Pine Grove when someone fired shots at him from a vehicle, according to police. The victim, who ran into a nearby apartment building, was not injured. Officers also found a bullet hole in a window of the apartment building.
Police have determined the Porsche that fled from the Sheffield and Sheridan hijacking attempt was taken in a violent carjacking on the 3200 block of West Foster around 10:17 p.m. Wednesday.
Two men armed with guns confronted a 27-year-old man as he got out of the tan sports car and ordered him to hand over all of his property, police said in a media statement. He gave them his cash and phone. But that wasn’t enough.
One of the hijackers then struck the victim in his head with a handgun before they climbed into the Porsche and drove away. EMS took the victim to Swedish Hospital in good condition, police said.
About 15 minutes later, two men entered the 7-Eleven store at 2010 North Damen and put a gun to the cashier’s head. They robbed the store, and one of the offenders hit the victim in the head with what appeared to be a long pistol, according to a CPD report.
Just before 4 p.m. Thursday — literally as the Lakeview incidents began to unfold — CPD issued a community alert linking the Porsche hijacking and the 7-Eleven robbery to two violent crimes in Bucktown on December 22.
At 12:03 p.m., two armed men confronted a woman on the 1800 block of North Wolcott and went through her pockets to take her valuables.
Just seven minutes later, John Ross, co-owner of The Bristol, 2152 North Damen, was shot by two men who tried to carjack him as he walked to his vehicle from the restaurant’s back door.
Ross suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, and the offenders fled the scene without taking his car.
Area Five detectives listed four suspect descriptions in their community alert:
- a Black male, 15- or 16-years-old, 5’6 to 5’7″ tall
- a Black male, 12- or 13-years-old, 5’3″ to 5’4″ tall
- a Black male in his 20s, 5’10” to 6’1″ tall, 140 to 160 pounds
- a Black male, 13- to 16-years-old, 5’6″ tall, 110 to 120 pounds
Anyone with information about the crimes can contact investigators at 312-746-7394 about pattern #P21-5-103.
