Chicago Man Charged With Carjacking Taxi
SKOKIE, Ill. (STMW) - Bond was set at $3 million Friday for a Chicago man accused of trying to rob a Subway restaurant, then carjacking a taxi and leading police on a chase through the north suburbs which ended in a crash on the North Side.
Larry Hampton, 44, of the 6300 block of South Seeley, was charged Thursday with aggravated vehicular hijacking, robbery, aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated battery, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, according to Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin.
He was ordered held on $3 million bond Friday and a preliminary hearing was set for Feb. 9, Conklin said.
Early Wednesday morning, Hampton got into a Rosemont Taxi near the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont and asked to go to a Subway sandwich shop, according to a release from Des Plaines police.
The driver of the taxi, 65-year-old Ilias Papaioammou, initially took Hampton to a Subway near Touhy and Mannheim in Rosemont where he went inside, but came right out.
Papaioammou then took Hampton to the Subway at 2096 Miner St. in Des Plaines, where Hampton again asked the driver to wait outside.
Once inside, he went behind the counter and tried to rob employee Jose Santiago, 34. A struggle ensued as he tried to take the cash register before running out empty-handed.
After fleeing the store, Hampton confronted the taxi driver, punched him and stole the keys to the cab by tearing open his coat pocket before fleeing in the cab, the release said. The driver was not injured.
A short time later, Morton Grove police officers saw the cab driving east on Golf Road and began following. The pursuit continued into Evanston and across the Northwestern University campus.
About 6:55 a.m., the taxi clipped the front end of a school bus near Clark and Columbia in Chicago, then hit a nearby pole. The driver jumped out and Chicago Police officers captured him after a short chase.
The bus driver was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston with minor injuries. No children were on board at the time, Fire Media Affairs Chief Kevin MacGregor said.
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