CHICAGO — A suburban man is charged with carjacking, accused of physically attacking and stealing his Uber driver’s car in the Loop. Prosecutors said Jose Ortiz-Perez, 30, of Woodstock, apparently became enraged after the driver was unable to find a radio station playing music he liked.
Ortiz-Perez ordered an Uber to take himself and two friends from the W Hotel in the Loop to TAO nightclub in River North around 11 p.m. on August 19.
Prosecutors said Ortiz-Perez asked the 40-year-old driver to change the music. After trying several different stations, the driver turned the radio off because he could not find a station Ortiz-Perez liked, officials said.
That’s when Ortiz-Perez allegedly began attacking the driver from the back seat, striking him in the head and body. The driver put the car in park and tried unsuccessfully to stop the attack, according to a court filing.
The driver got out of the car to get away from Ortiz-Perez and tried to restrain him by holding his arm, but the attack continued, the filing said.
Ortiz-Perez eventually jumped into the driver’s seat of the victim’s white Honda Civic and drove away, prosecutors claim. But he left the parking brake engaged and only managed to travel a few car lengths before he got out and walked away.
Prosecutors said the attack and the auto theft were all caught on the Uber driver’s in-car surveillance system.
Chicago police detectives executed a search warrant on the Uber account that ordered the ride. The warrant led them to Ortiz-Perez and they arrested him at his home late this week.
According to documents filed with the court, Ortiz-Perez told investigators that the Uber driver “beat my a**” and dragged him out of the Uber by his feet. He also claimed that he suffered a concussion and woke up in the hospital but was released within two hours, but it took two or three weeks for him to recover, the document stated.
However, on police bodycam footage recorded minutes after the attack, Ortiz-Perez told officers that nothing happened, that he was trying to get to TAO, and that he did not need an ambulance, according to the court record.
The driver, who only speaks Cantonese, reported feeling weak and dizzy and said everything he ate came back up after the attack. He said he felt ill immediately after the attack, so he decided to hold off on filing a police report for a couple of days, and he had a friend drive him from the Loop to Chinatown. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, according to a statement he gave to CPD.
Prosecutors asked Judge Deidre Dyer to keep Ortiz-Perez in jail pending trial. She denied their petition and ordered Ortiz-Perez to go on electronic monitoring while the case is pending. She also ordered him to avoid using rideshares until the case is resolved.
