CHICAGO — The man who carjacked a woman in Logan Square this week tried to carjack another 69-year-old woman as he ran from Chicago cops on the West Side, officials say.
Jeremy Phillips, 20, tried to pull the senior citizen out of her car after he crashed the carjacked vehicle in the 700 block of North Pulaski around 1:20 p.m. Thursday, according to a Chicago police report. But cops were hot on his heels, and they took him into custody before he got away.
State records show he just got out of prison a month ago for attempted possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
The Logan Square carjacking occurred around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday in the 2000 block of North Whipple. A CPD spokesperson said a 33-year-old woman was outside her vehicle when two men approached her from behind and demanded her belongings and car keys.
She complied, and they drove away with her white Acura ZDX. The woman told police one of the hijackers had a lot of facial tattoos, a CPD report said.
Chicago police license plate readers spotted the stolen Acura on the West Side on Thursday afternoon. Covert police resources closed in on the vehicle and kept an eye on it until marked units were prepared to stop it, a police report said.
But when patrol officers tried to pull Phillips over, he sped away and eventually crashed the Acura, according to CPD. He was among four people who ran from the car.
Cops said they ran after Phillips and saw him try to carjack a 69-year-old woman as they closed in. He ripped her car keys from her hand and tried to pull her out of the vehicle, according to the CPD arrest report. Cops foiled the hijacking attempt.
The arrest report said that Phillips had the Acura’s key fob in his back pocket along with a bank card with a woman’s name on it.
Judge Susana Ortiz ordered him held without bail on charges of vehicular hijacking and robbery.
On June 23, Phillips pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a stolen motor vehicle in connection with a case from Cicero, according to court records. Judge Eulalia De La Rosa sentenced him to two years. But, after having the sentence cut in half for good behavior and receiving credit for time served, he walked out of prison on June 28—one day after he arrived, Illinois Department of Corrections records show.
In November, Phillips pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge and to felony criminal damage to government property. According to court records, the criminal damage involved his electronic monitoring bracelet, from which he escaped. Prosecutors dropped the escape charge in their plea deal with him.