Two friends share horrifying experience of being carjacked in Homewood gas station; one suspect later jumped off bridge to escape
HOMEWOOD, Ill. (CBS) -- Two men recently went on a carjacking spree in the south suburbs – first carjacking two other men, and then a woman with children inside the car.
Afterward, the suspects took police on a high-speed chase through Northwest Indiana before one of them jumped off a bridge just to get away.
CBS 2's Jermont Terry talked to the two friends who were the carjackers' victims – and who described a harrowing and horrifying ordeal. They managed to escape without physical injury despite having guns pointed right at them.
Kendall Knight and Khalil Newson are close friends with a bond like brothers. This week, the pair experienced quite the scare while at a Shell gas station in Homewood.
"I'm still thinking about it - just a little traumatizing mentally," Newson said.
Moments after Khalil came out of the store and jumped into his own car, a man grabbed his attention.
"The guy approached me. He said, 'Hey, you want to buy some pills?'" Newson said. "I said, "Naw, I'm good – I don't take pills.'"
Seconds after declining, the guy turned away – but then he turned back, this time with a gun.
"And when he turned back around, he had a gun in his hand. He pointed it at my chest - and got closer a little closer with it as he was demanding me to get out the car," Newson said.
Kendall, who sat in the passenger seat, realized they were surrounded by two gunmen.
"He was threatening to kill somebody if we moved," Knight said.
They were getting carjacked, in the parking lot of the busy Shell station at 179th and Halsted streets.
"I really wanted to react and do something," Knight said, "but at the end of the day, I didn't want my little brother to get hurt."
The carjackers stole their car and jumped on Interstate 80/94 toward Indiana. But police said the thieves carjacked another woman at gunpoint along the way.
They were in two stolen cars as they headed east. Indiana State Police spotted the vehicles, and the men led troopers on a chase throughout Northwest Indiana.
"Our car ended up in Indiana on Cline," Newson said.
His car was also wrecked. The first gunman had been driving it, and he crashed it.
But the second gunman kept zooming down the expressway. He eventually lost control of the car.
State police said the second gunman showed the gun when he tried bailing - and officers fired. At that point, the gunman jumped 30 feet from a bridge to get away. He was seriously injured instead.
"I don't care how much trouble I'm in – I'm not about to jump off no bridge," Knight said. "They didn't care about anything, obviously."
Indiana State Police did arrest the two carjackers – they are 18- and 21-year-olds from Chicago.
The one who jumped off the bridge remained hospitalized as of Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Kendall and Khalil are grateful they didn't end up in the ER themselves.