Family relieved after Dolton man is charged in 2021 North Center gunfire, deadly hit-and-run
CHICAGO (CBS) – There is finally an arrest in a hit-and-run that left a woman dead in the North Center neighborhood nearly two years ago.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported Wednesday night, this is the day Janelle Gardiner's family has been hoping for since the crash in 2021.
Ollonzo Wilson, 38, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, and leaving the scene of an accident involving death in the hit-and-run that killed Gardiner early on the morning of Oct. 3, 2021.
The hit-and-run followed one of several rolling shootouts that transpired in the North Center and West Lakeview areas in the fall of 2021.
Prosecutors said Wilson left key pieces of evidence at the scene.
"He took someone extremely special to our family," said Janelle Gardiner's sister, Melissa Gardiner.
Gardiner's sisters and mother reflected Wednesday after they got what they have been waiting for – an arrest in Gardiner's fatal hit-and-run case that has gone unsolved until now.
"Just relief," said Janelle Gardiner's other sister, Lliani Gardiner. "It's good to put a face and a name to it, and to know that he's no longer just free to do what he wants."
Gardiner was on her way home after a concert that early Sunday morning in the passenger seat of a Nissan – when at out-of-control Toyota Camry traveling nearly 90 mph slammed into her car Gardiner was in, near Irving Park Road and Western Avenue.
Gardiner was 37. A 27-year-old man was also injured.
Wilson has been identified as the driver.
"I expected him to have been arrested the night of the accident," said Janelle Gardiner's mother, Karen Gardiner. "I was in shock when they told me he got away."
In a proffer Wednesday, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers said Wilson drove his Camry out of a parking garage at 3517 N. Clark St. close to Wrigley Field at 2:52 a.m., and waited for his friends in their white Dodge Durango to exit the garage.
Once the Durango exited a minute later, POD cameras captured the vehicles traveling down various city streets together, prosecutors said.
At 3:01 a.m., as the Toyota and Durango approached the intersection of Grace and Clark streets, a Dodge began to follow the cars - and turned with them onto westbound Irving Park Road, prosecutors said.
At 3:03 a.m., surveillance video from Irving Park Road and Damen and Lincoln avenues showed the Dodge enter the far-left turn lane, while Wilson pulled up in his Camry - and fired multiple shots from his car window at the Dodge across the middle lanes of traffic, prosecutors said.
A Chicago Police officer was there in a squad car at the time, and heard and saw the shots, police said. The officer activated his emergency lights and followed the Camry west on Irving Park Road, prosecutors said.
The Dodge – whose occupants remain unknown – fled the scene. But Wilson kept going west on Irving Park Road at a high rate of speed, prosecutors said.
Less than a minute after firing the shots, Wilson ran a red light at Irving Park Road and slammed into the passenger side of a car lawfully traveling north on Western Avenue with the green light, prosecutors said. Gardiner was in that car, and was killed.
Meanwhile, Wilson ran from the scene, prosecutors said. But he left behind two cellphones, his own driver's license, an unloaded .45-caliber gun with a seven-round capacity in the slide lock, and one .45-caliber shell casing, prosecutors said.
There were another 45 spent shell casings near Lincoln and Damen avenues and Irving Park Road where the shots were fired. These shell casings matched the one in Wilson's car, prosecutors said.
"We just thought he was just in the wind – gone," said Melissa Gardiner.
With Wilson apparently laying low, he resurfaced in February and was back on detectives' radar – arrested again, this time for unlawful use of a weapon.
"I feel a little relief, because like I said, he won't be able to hurt anybody else like that again," said Karen Gardiner.
Wilson has at least four prior felonies. He appeared in court Thursday and is being held without bond.