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Chicago police are investigating a bold crime spree that included a violent attempted carjacking and nearly a dozen other armed robberies, many of which targeted victims in parked cars.
Police said the same vehicle was used in the crimes, which all took place within about a three-hour span early Monday morning. Investigators say each involved several armed suspects approaching victims and demanding their property and threatening force.
In one case, a man was shot after refusing to give up his car.
In that incident, a Cadillac sedan was parked between the pumps at the Citgo gas station in the 200- block of N. Western when a dark vehicle pulls up.
Surveillance video shows three people jump out, surrounding the Cadillac. One assailant goes to the driver's side, the other opens the passenger door and a third comes out with his gun drawn.
Police said after the 46-year-old male victim refused to give up his car, he was shot in the groin and thigh. ABC7 Chicago has frozen the video before the suspect pulls the trigger.
His attackers got away, and about an hour after the Citgo shooting, police said a 39-year-old man crashed his car after trying to flee four robbers near Roosevelt and Canal.
Between the overnight hours of 1 and 4 a.m., police say there were 12 similar incidents in five different police districts.
Several on the North Side, including two on N. Larrabee right down the street from the 18th District Police Station, all follow a pattern: robbing people who were in parked cars. And some victims were not only robbed, but beaten.
"Robbery is one of the categories, where obviously carjackings is a subset of the robbery category, that is up way too high," Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said.
Brown said the department plans in the near future to focus on robberies using the same type of cutting-edge technology used to reduce shootings and homicides.
"We want to try to use some of that skill set for robbery and motor vehicle and will have more to come on that," Brown said.
No one is in custody in connection with any of the robberies. Investigators said the pattern is also very similar to robberies that took place last week in Lincoln Park.