Chicago police are investigating an armed carjacking that occurred in the heart of Andersonville on Thursday evening. It unfolded just a block from where a woman was hijacked at gunpoint last week. The crimes are unusual for the neighborhood, which has long enjoyed low violent crime rates.
Thursday’s victim, a 27-year-old man, was sitting in his parked car on the 1400 block of West Rascher when two men each displayed a handgun and ordered him out around 7:08 p.m., a police spokesperson said.
He complied, and the men drove away with his gray 2015 Mercedes SUV, police said. CPD plate readers spotted the car traveling south on Lake Shore Drive at Foster and Chicago avenues within minutes of the hijacking.
Officers at the scene described the suspects as two masked Black males. They said one of them wore a green hoodie and the other wore a black hoodie.
Last Wednesday, March 23, a 24-year-old woman was carjacked as she placed items in her Toyota RAV4 on the 1400 block of West Balmoral around 10:19 a.m., CPD spokesperson Kellie Bartoli said.
The hijacker reportedly pointed a gun at the woman’s head and demanded her keys, which she handed over. He was last seen heading east in the car. Bartoli said he was described only as a Black male wearing a black hoodie and a black mask.
CPD recorded five carjackings in the Edgewater community area, which includes Andersonville, between January 1 and March 23 this year. There were five during the same period last year and three in 2020. There were only two hijackings in Edgewater during all of 2019.
Citywide, there were 99 hijackings reported between March 1 and 23 compared to 64 last year, 46 in 2020, and 25 in 2019, according to the city’s data portal.
For the year, there were 396 hijackings citywide through March 23, six fewer than the same period last year. By comparison, there were 185 and 101 in 2020 and 2019 respectively.