11-year-old ‘prolific carjacker’ arrested in Chicago, eyed in several heists: cops
An 11-year-old boy was arrested for a carjacking in Chicago and is considered a suspect in “several” other cases, police said.
The boy, who was not publicly identified, was busted Friday on a felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, Chicago police brass said Monday.
“Let me say that again, because that stops the conscience,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Our task force arrested an 11-year-old for a carjacking.”
The youngster — whom Brown characterized as a “prolific carjacker” in the Windy City — was arrested Friday in the Nov. 14 carjacking of a 48-year-old woman in a supermarket parking lot.
“This is a sad state of affairs,” Brown said, adding that the boy was arrested and charged with being in a stolen car two weeks earlier. The vehicle had been carjacked in nearby Evergreen Park, the Tribune reported.
Brown said the boy will be charged as a juvenile, but he’s being eyed in “several” other carjackings, investigators said.
“The 11-year-old seems to be driving these carjackings,” Chicago police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said. “So he’s not just there, I guess, along for the ride with other individuals.”
Law enforcement sources told WLS-TV the victim in the Nov. 14 carjacking at a Jewel Osco supermarket was a Chicago police sergeant’s wife who was robbed at gunpoint. The stolen 2021 BMW SUV was later recovered on the city’s South Side, the station reported.
Deenihan said detectives believe the 11-year-old was a “strong participant” in other recent carjackings, but an investigation is ongoing.
Chicago police, meanwhile, have made 1,292 carjacking-related arrests this year in 1,635 reported incidents, Brown said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also commented on the boy’s arrest Monday while criticizing judges for releasing suspects in similar carjacking cases, WLS-TV reported.
“I’m going to be meeting with the juvenile judges here relatively soon to address that issue,” Lightfoot said at a press conference. “We have a crisis and it’s a crisis that they have to own some responsibility for. We cannot keep putting these kids back out on the streets with no support, no resources, no monitoring.”
