Chicago — Prosecutors say a man dropped a loaded firearm inside an Uber in Boystown and then ditched a second gun in the back of a taxi when police approached him moments later on Halsted Street.
It happened around 6:45 a.m. Sunday near the Chicago Police Department’s Town Hall (19th) District station at 850 West Addison.
An Uber driver told police that he picked up Roland Hayes, 26, at 118th and Kedzie and then drove him to his destination near the Lincoln Park Zoo, said prosecutor Adam Sammarco.
After arriving at the destination, the Uber driver “sensed something was off,” and he refused to let Hayes out of the car. Instead, the driver headed onto Lake Shore Drive and drove toward the 19th District station, according to Sammarco.
Hayes insisted on exiting at Addison and Halsted streets, about a block from the police station, and the Uber driver, upon noticing a firearm handle in the back seat, obliged, Sammarco said. But the gun allegedly fell to the floorboard as Hayes got out, and he left it in the Uber.
The driver continued to the police station and reported the incident. Officers at the front desk radioed a description of the Uber passenger, and a patrol unit saw Hayes getting into a taxi at a gas station on the corner of Halsted and Addison, Sammarco continued. The cops told the taxi driver to park and ordered Hayes out of the cab.
Sammarco said that when the cab driver gave police permission to search his car, they found a loaded 9-millimeter handgun with an extended magazine behind the driver’s seat near where Hayes had been sitting.
The cab driver told police that Hayes wanted to go to Schaumburg.
Prosecutors charged Hayes with two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. His defense attorney said he is a “part-time driver for an app.”
Judge Mary Marubio ordered him to pay a $200 bail deposit to go home.