Prosecutors on Thursday charged a Chicago woman with carjacking a driver in Roscoe Village nearly two years ago. The accused woman, Ariana Barrett-Washington, 22, was already facing charges for another hijacking in the suburbs nine days after the North Side incident.
At 4:45 p.m. on November 20, 2020, a 25-year-old woman stopped at a stop sign in the 3300 block of North Hoyne while driving to her boyfriend’s house. A car that had been closely following her struck her rear bumper and then pulled in front of her.
The victim got out of her car, and another woman stepped out of the vehicle that hit her. After asking the victim if she was okay, the other woman jumped into the driver’s seat of the victim’s Hyundai Elantra and drove away.
Prosecutors said the victim held onto and ran alongside her car until she fell to the pavement. The car that initially collided with her vehicle, driven by an accomplice, also left the scene. Investigators found the hijacked Elantra a few days later. It was totaled.
Weeks later, the victim’s father, who owned the Elantra, began receiving red light and speed camera tickets from the city. Prosecutors on Thursday said some of those tickets included clear images showing that Barrett-Washington was driving it.
On November 29, 2020, Barrett-Washington and her boyfriend allegedly hijacked an Uber driver in the suburbs.
Prosecutors said the two entered the car at 184th and Kedzie. Along the way, Barrett-Washington told the driver that she was pregnant and was going to throw up. The driver pulled over.
Once the car stopped, Barrett-Washington’s boyfriend put the driver into a headlock, hit her in the head with a large flashlight, and ordered her to drop the keys, prosecutors alleged.
A witness called the police, and Barrett-Washington, and the boyfriend ran away without getting the car. Police arrested them nearby.
Officials said that Barrett-Washington posted a $5,000 bail deposit in the suburban case and has attended all of her court dates. Noting that she has complied with the conditions of bail, Judge Maryam Ahamad ordered her to post $1,000 to be released on the new charges.
During Barrett-Washington’s bail hearing on Thursday, a prosecutor said she did not know why it took so long for authorities to bring charges in the Roscoe Village case.
