Chicago — Prosecutors say Chicago cops watched as a man stole an SUV in Uptown, then arrested him in Streeterville after he abandoned the car in traffic on Lake Shore Drive. Police said they found a gun in the stolen vehicle.
Jaylin Williams, 19, is charged with possessing a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was already on first-time gun offender probation for another case when police arrested him, officials said.
Chicago police officers saw a man jump into an SUV while its owner unloaded items in the 4600 block of North Clarendon around 4:45 p.m. Saturday. The car sped onto southbound Lake Shore Drive with its rear hatch still open as police followed it from a distance.
But Williams bailed out of the SUV near the Oak Street Beach “S-curve,” jumped the median, and continued running down the drive, prosecutor Kenneth Flesch said. Officers arrested Williams in the 200 block of East Delaware after a foot chase.
They also found a loaded handgun on the SUV’s driver-side floorboard, Flesch said, adding that the SUV’s owner didn’t have a gun in the car.
Williams’ public defender said he is a sophomore at Western Illinois University and works two full-time jobs.
“One of his favorite things to do is attend church every Sunday with his grandma,” the attorney said during Williams’ bail hearing.
Judge Mary Marubio ordered him to pay a $5,000 deposit toward bail to be released on electronic monitoring for the new charges. But Marubio also held him without bail for violating probation in his 2022 gun case.
First-time gun offender probation is a special program that allows young adults with good backgrounds to have a weapons charge removed from their records upon succesfully completing the sentence. Marubio warned Williams that he might now be resentenced in the 2022 gun case.
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