Prosecutors have filed carjacking and gun charge against a man in connection with a vehicular hijacking in Lakeview over the weekend. In an unrelated case, prosecutors charged a man with possessing a stolen motor vehicle after police allegedly caught him wiping fingerprints from an SUV that was carjacked in the West Loop.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday, a man was repairing a scooter behind his home on the 1400 block of West Cuyler when two masked men walked up and one put a gun to his head.
The men demanded the victim’s car keys and one of them reached into his pockets to get them, Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher Cromydas said. Then they climbed into his Lexus SUV and drove away, followed by an accomplice who was driving a silver Jeep.
Cromydas said the Jeep had been carjacked from a woman in Cicero a few days earlier.
About 30 minutes later, cops spotted the stolen Lexus and the Jeep traveling together and tried to pull them over. The Lexus got away, but the Jeep crashed outside the Northwest Armory, next to Humboldt Park.
The Jeep’s driver, 19-year-old Dentrell Curtis, admitted to taking part in the Lakeview carjacking and he even identified the victim in photographs, Cromydas said. Police also found a loaded and stolen handgun in the Jeep, Cromydas added. Curtis allegedly told cops he carried the gun for protection.
Prosecutors charged Curtis with armed violence, aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possessing a stolen motor vehicle, fleeing and eluding, and leaving the scene of an accident. He also received several traffic citations.
Judge Charles Beach ordered him held without bail at the state’s request.
Targeted at Target
Two men carjacked a woman as she sat in her car in the Target store parking lot, 1101 West Jackson, around 4:23 p.m. last Wednesday, May 25.
Prosecutors said four people pulled up in a dark sedan and two men stepped out to hijack her. One displayed a gun as they took her phone and pulled her from her Audi. Two other people, including a man wearing a yellow sweatshirt, remained in the sedan as the crime unfolded, prosecutors said. The sedan and the carjacked Audi left the scene together.
The next day, police used GPS to find the Audi on 81st Street. When they rolled up to the car, Kendrick Flax, 18, was busily wiping fingerprints from its interior with the sleeves of his yellow sweatshirt, prosecutors said.
Cops arrested him and prosecutors filed a charge of possessing a stolen motor vehicle.
Judge Kelly McCarthy set bail at $20,000. Flax must post 10% of that amount to get out of jail.
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