Chicago police are investigating an overnight crime wave that rolled from the West Loop to Wicker Park to Edgewater, leaving at least six carjacking victims and two armed robbery victims in its wake. No arrests have been made.
It started around 12:15 a.m. Sunday in the 2500 block of West North Avenue in Wicker Park. A group of about five armed men carjacked a woman at gunpoint of her Toyota Corolla. It was later found crashed.
A man was carjacked in the 1200 block of North Washtenaw around 2 a.m. This time, three armed men wearing ski masks displayed guns and took his gray 2005 Volkswagen SUV, according to CPD records. It was last seen heading south on Washtenaw, then east on Evergreen.
About 30 minutes later, three men wearing masks displayed guns and carjacked a 21-year-old man of his black Dodge Charger in the 200 block of North Carpenter in the West Loop.
Similar armed carjackings were reported:
- around 4 a.m. at Addison and Pulaski in Irving Park
- around 4:15 a.m. in the 2000 block of West Montrose, also in Irving Park
- around 4:40 a.m. in the 5600 block of North Winthrop in Edgewater
In each carjacking, the suspects were generally described as Black males in their late teens or early 20s wearing masks and brandishing at least one handgun.
Two armed robberies were also reported in the area of the carjackings.
Around 3:45 a.m., two armed robbers pulled up to a man in the Jewel parking lot, 1341 North Paulina, and displayed a handgun. They threw him to the ground and demanded his valuables at gunpoint. He described them as two Hispanic men wearing shorts who stand about 5’5″ tall, according to an officer.
And around 4:20 a.m., three people stepped out of a car and robbed a taxi driver of his cash near Lawrence and Kedzie in Albany Park. According to CPD records, the license plate on the robbers’ getaway car matched the plate used on a vehicle in some of the earlier carjackings.
CPD has issued community alerts about two armed robbery teams that are hitting the near west and north sides of the city. But, so far, no arrests have been announced.