A man who walked out of court to await trial on a felony stolen vehicle charge in June 2024 killed a 25-year-old man just two weeks later while speeding through a red light in yet another stolen car, prosecutors now say. Dujan Lucas, 24, is now the 37th person charged with killing or trying to kill someone while on felony pretrial release in Chicago that year.
It started, according to prosecutors, on June 6, 2024, when Lucas was charged with possessing a stolen Dodge Durango. The vehicle was suspected of being used hours earlier in a shoplifting raid at the Louis Vuitton store inside a Nordstrom, where roughly $22,000 worth of merchandise was taken, according to a CPD report.
Exactly two weeks after he walked out of court, prosecutors now say, Lucas was driving a stolen black 2021 Jeep Cherokee SRT-8 at 73 mph when he ran a solid red light at 83rd Street and South Kedzie Avenue. A CPD surveillance camera captured what happened next: the Jeep slammed into a white Honda HRV heading west on 83rd Street.
Raul Palacios Carvajal, the sole occupant of the Honda, driving home from work, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lucas and a passenger ran from the scene, prosecutors said.
Investigators collected blood from the Jeep’s deployed airbag and sent it to a lab for DNA testing. It matched Lucas, according to prosecutors. When investigators learned of the DNA results and discovered that Lucas was arrested for allegedly possessing a stolen car just two weeks before the crash, they showed a photo of the driver running from the crash site to the cop who arrested Lucas for driving the stolen Durango. That officer positively identified the man running from the Jeep as Lucas, a police report said.
Judge James Murphy III granted the state’s detention petition, keeping Lucas in jail to await trial on charges of reckless homicide by motor vehicle and failure to report a fatal accident. The 2024 stolen motor vehicle case is still pending.
The “not horrible” series
This report continues our coverage of individuals accused of killing, shooting, or trying to kill or shoot others on pretrial release for a felony allegation. CWBChicago began our series of reports in November 2019 after then-Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans publicly stated, “We haven’t had any horrible incidents occur” under the court’s bond reform initiative.
The actual number of murders and shootings committed by people awaiting trial for felony allegations is undoubtedly much higher than the numbers seen here. Since 2017, CPD has brought charges in less than 5% of non-fatal shootings and 33% of murders, according to the city’s data. You can see all of the “not horrible” stories here.
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