Chicago — There is an incredible twist to report regarding the three would-be robbers who crossed paths with a concealed carry holder after carrying out a series of armed holdups in Wicker Park on Monday morning. The armed citizen shot two of the robbers, and the third broke a leg when the driver of their getaway car, who had a gunshot wound to his temple, crashed while trying to flee the scene.
It turns out that two of the three robbers tried to carjack an Uber driver earlier this year, but the hijacking failed when the driver shot and killed their accomplice.
The Uber hijacking occurred around 4:23 a.m. on April 27 in the 3900 block of West Jackson. At the time, the Chicago Police Department issued a media statement that said a 16-year-old boy had been shot in the head and killed by someone who opened fire from a vehicle.
The department, however, never disclosed that the teen was shot while attempting to carjack the man who killed him. According to records reviewed by CWBChicago, CPD reclassified the case from murder to vehicular hijacking last month.
A source confirmed that two teenagers involved in the April carjacking were also involved in the robbery attempt that went sideways on Monday morning. They were never charged with participating in the April crime. Both, however, have been arrested on other matters before, two sources said.
On Monday morning, the car that the three took to the fateful robbery attempt was used to commit several robberies in and near Wicker Park. Another carload of robbers also carried out armed robberies in the area around the same time, according to a source.
Riding in a stolen Kia with a broken back window but bearing the license plate of a different stolen car, the teens rolled up on a man inside his vehicle in the 4700 block of West Arthington around 5:53 a.m., a CPD report said.
Three robbers got out of the Kia, and one pointed a firearm at the man while demanding his belongings, according to a Chicago police statement. The concealed carry holder shot the getaway driver in the temple and shot another offender in the shoulder, police said. The stolen Kia traveled a short distance, then crashed, causing a passenger in its back seat to suffer a broken leg.
A total of four suspects are in police custody. All are believed to be males between 15- and 18-years-old, police said. The driver was taken into surgery and is in grave condition.
According to a source, the stolen Kia was also used in a robbery spree on Sunday. More than 40 people have been robbed on the near west and north sides since Friday morning as armed robbery teams committed bursts of holdups across the areas.
Even after the concealed carry holder neutralized one carload of suspected robbers on Monday, the other carload continued to rob people, according to a source.
Around 6:25 a.m., the second crew robbed a man at gunpoint in the 1700 block of North Western. They took his wallet and then threw his phone at them because they were angry that he was too terrified to remember his PIN, an officer said.
