Chicago police officers have recovered the Audi A7 taken from a Beverly couple during a brazen armed carjacking that was caught on camera one week ago. While a woman who was allegedly riding in the car when cops found it yesterday has been charged with trespassing, the men who committed the carjacking remain on the loose. (See the video here.)
We’ve also learned new details about what happened on the night of the carjacking, including this: Chicago cops responding to the hijacking call saw the stolen car speeding down 95th Street, but they decided not to pursue it because it was traveling too fast.
CPD’s initial incident report said the carjacking occurred just after 9 p.m. on November 2 as a 46-year-old woman returned home with her daughter, who had been at volleyball practice. After parking their Range Rover in the family’s detached garage, the girl headed into the house, and her mom followed a few moments behind.
Before she made it to the back door, though, two masked men barged into the back yard, each displaying a handgun, including one that had an extended ammunition magazine, the report said. The men pushed the woman to the ground.
“I’ll shoot you,” one barked while demanding the Range Rover’s keys. He took her purse when she told him that’s where the keys were.
As the robbery was unfolding, the woman’s husband, also 46, walked out the back door. The two robbers aimed their guns at him and ordered him to the ground, threatening to shoot him, too, the report said.
According to the report, the robbers asked him for the keys to the Audi, which was parked in the driveway. He told them they were in the vehicle, so one of the carjackers ordered him to show him where the keys were.
“If she moves, shoot her,” one of the men said to the other, who kept the woman held at gunpoint.
After getting the Audi’s keys, the carjackers “began to debate between each other in order to decide which vehicle to steal,” the incident report said. They decided to take the Audi.
On Wednesday night, Chicago police officers spotted the Audi traveling without its lights on near Oglesby Avenue and 97th Street. Knowing it had been carjacked, they tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away, and they terminated the pursuit, a second CPD report said.
The officers continued to search the area for the car. They found it parked in the 9600 block of South Crandon. Police said a witness described a woman who was seen exiting the car’s passenger seat. Officers found Kayla Bell, 24, matching the description about two blocks away, the report said.
She was arrested after the witness confirmed that she was the person who exited the Audi, according to the report.
Bell is charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle, but she is not accused of participating in the hijacking. She was released from the police station with instructions to show up for court on December 18, court records show.
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