Prosecutors this week charged a Chicago man with carjacking a driver in Albany Park and then robbing a bicyclist in Edgewater nearly two years ago. Officials did not say why it took so long to charge Carlos Perez, 24, even though both alleged victims identified him within days of the crimes.
Around 4:30 p.m. on November 23, 2020, Perez tapped a gun on the driver’s side window of a man’s pickup truck in the 4800 block of North Central Park and ordered the victim out of the vehicle, prosecutor Sarah Dale-Schmidt said Friday.
The driver, 39, complied. Perez put the gun to the man’s head, took his wallet, and escaped in the pickup, she said.
About an hour later, Perez used the stolen truck to pin a 28-year-old bicyclist against a curb in the 5700 block of North Wayne, Dale-Schmidt said. Perez allegedly got out, took the man’s wallet at gunpoint, tossed his bicycle into the truck bed, and drove away.
Police in DuPage County arrested Perez later that day, and he eventually served one-year sentences for aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated battery of a peace officer.
But he was never charged with the hijacking or the robbery even though the victims identified him in photo line-ups in late November and early December of 2020.
Dale-Schmidt said authorities in Lake, DuPage, and Cook counties issued warrants for Perez’s arrest on various charges between April and September this year. Officers staked out his home on Thursday and took him into custody.
She said he ran from police, resisted arrest, and repeatedly tried to reach into a satchel draped across his chest as officers tried to arrest him. Police allegedly found a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine inside the satchel after detaining him.
During the arrest, Perez allegedly bit one officer’s hand and spit on four cops. Dale-Schmidt said he was arrested with 34 Xanax pills and suspected crack cocaine in his possession.
In addition to his 2021 convictions, Perez was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in 2019 and of possession of a firearm by a gang member in 2016.
Perez, who works in his family’s construction business, attends church and has two children under the age of five, according to Assistant Public Defender Patrick Shine.
Prosecutors charged Perez with aggravated vehicle hijacking with a gun, armed robbery with a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of a controlled substance, resisting police, and four counts of aggravated battery of a peace officer.
He was ordered held without bail by Judge Maryam Ahamad.
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