Man Charged After Cops Thwart Armed Carjacking
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A Bellwood man was charged with an armed carjacking Monday morning in the South Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.
Darius Walker, 24, got into a gray Oldsmobile Alero sedan and forced an elderly woman to drive away at gunpoint near Cermak Road and California Avenue, according to a release from police News Affairs.
Ogden District officers were on patrol about 10 a.m. when they were waved down by a 66-year-old woman who said she had just been the victim of an attempted robbery, according to the release. She pointed out Walker, who had just entered the Oldsmobile, and the officers radioed for assistance and began to follow the car.
The car stopped in a nearby parking lot and Walker got out and began to run away, according to the release. Three other people were in the car, and the driver—a 69-year-old woman—told police Walker got in the car while brandishing a handgun and demanded that she drive away.
Other Ogden District officers responding to radio calls later caught him and recovered a blue-steel semi-automatic weapon, the release states.
Walker, of the 3900 block of West Warren Avenue in Bellwood, was charged with one felony count each of aggravated vehicular carjacking with a firearm and attempted aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, according to the release.
He is scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court at 2600 S. California Ave. Tuesday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)