Carjacked SUV Leads Police On High-Speed Chase From Skokie To West Town

SKOKIE, IL — Two suspected carjackers were arrested and one remained at large after a late night high speed chase ran from Skokie to Chicago's West Town neighborhood.

Around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, a cashier at a Skokie gas station called police to report that a silver-colored SUV had pulled into the parking lot on the 9600 block of Crawford. Two people got out of the vehicle and tried to enter the gas station while using their shirts to try to cover their faces but were thwarted by locked exterior doors, the cashier said.

Skokie police said they ran a check on the Toyota RAV4 and found it had been stolen from Chicago.

Skokie detectives soon found the car parked behind another gas station near the intersection of Old Orchard Road and Lawler. The vehicle immediately fled the area, running a red light and getting on the northbound Edens Expressway. At some point, the SUV turned around and began heading southbound.

Soon, Illinois State Police and the Wilmette Police Department were notified of the suspected carjackers. A state trooper intercepted the vehicle southbound on I-94 at Cicero Avenue and gave chase along with Chicago Police.

Police chased the Toyota onto the Kennedy and into the city. It eventually exited at Ogden Avenue and managed to briefly evade police, police told the Tribune.

A few blocks away, the SUV crashed into a tree near the intersection of Chicago and Sangamon just south of Goose Island in the West Town neighborhood. Its occupants fled on foot.

Two juveniles were arrested around 11:45 p.m. One was taken into custody near Sangamon and Fry and the other on train tracks near Ogden and Chestnut, state police told the Tribune. A third occupant of the vehicle ran into the Chicago Tribune parking lot at North Halsted Street and West Chicago. Police used dogs in the search but a third suspect has not been apprehended as of Thursday morning.

During the chase, the fleeing RAV4 reached speeds of above 100 mph, and state police said a handgun was found inside.

Chicago police later said the same SUV had been stolen in a vehicular hijacking last week. Around 6:30 p.m. on April 28, a 59-year-old woman and an 85-year-old women were sitting in a car on the 300 block of E. 26th Street in Chicago when they were approached by a carjacker who stole the car at gunpoint and fled.

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