Chicago police are investigating an armed carjacking and the shooting of another robbery victim minutes apart in River North this morning. It is not known if the crimes are related.
The hijacking occurred inside a parking garage on Ontario Street, just west of State Street, around 4:18 a.m.
A 26-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were inside a parked BMW X5 when the hijacker climbed into the driver’s seat and ordered them to get out at gunpoint, a CPD spokesperson said.
The victims complied, and the carjacker drove away with their BMW.
About ten minutes later, a 50-year-old man was shot when he refused to comply with an armed robber on Hubbard Street, just west of State Street.
Police said the robber confronted the victim, who was walking on Hubbard Street, and demanded his valuables. Instead, the victim began fighting with the offender.
During the struggle, the victim “heard shots and felt pain and sustained a gunshot wound to the left buttock,” a CPD media statement said.
Someone drove him to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn for treatment, according to police.
He is the 13th person shot in River North this year, down from 23 at this point last year. The neighborhood had 15 people shot as of this date in 2021; 12 at this time in 2020; and 9 during the period in 2019.
Three of this year’s other victims were shot on the same block of Hubbard Street as this morning’s victim. They were outside as the local bars closed on May 14 when at least one gunman began shooting.
The most recent shooting before this morning was last Monday. A 21-year-old man told police someone shot at him from a silver Dodge pickup truck as he walked in the 600 block of North State around 2:47 a.m.
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