28-Apr-18 – A carjacking of a plainclothes Chicago police officer started a violent crime spree that left two people shot in the Gold Coast neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. A suspect is in custody and the conditions of both victims have stabilized, according to Chicago police.

The spree began at 5:30 p.m. when a Jaguar, taken in a carjacking earlier in the day, crashed into a Jeep near West Chicago Avenue & North Larrabee Street. A man jumped from the Jaguar and fled the scene. Moments later and a few blocks east, a police officer assigned to the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General was carjacked at gunpoint near Jesse White Park. The offender abandoned the officer’s vehicle on North State Street behind Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse.

(Left) Area in back of Gibson’s and Hugo’s Frog Bar.

Near North Oak Street & East Rush Street, a driver was shot as the suspect attempted another carjacking. In front of Hugo’s Frog Bar & Fish House at 1024 North Rush Street, the robber pulled a driver from a Jeep and sped away.

About ten blocks northwest, near North Lake Shore Drive & East Schiller Street, he jumped out of the Jeep and fired a shot into the driver’s side window of a Mercedes in traffic, injuring its elderly driver. The victim reportedly told police he did not believe he was seriously injured.

Police found the offender in a nearby condominium and recovered a weapon. He was identified by the second carjacking victim as the person who took his car at gunpoint, police said, and by additional witnesses.

Both shooting victims were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment.