CHICAGO – The victim of a carjacking in Chicago caused an eight-vehicle crash Saturday when he attempted to stop the assailants, authorities said.
The crash caused the victim’s 2014 Kia Sportage to burst into flames in the Hanson Park neighborhood of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.
According to police, the 30-year-old victim was sitting in his vehicle at about 2 a.m. CDT in the Cragin neighborhood of the city when he was forced out of the car at gunpoint by two assailants, the newspaper reported.
Instead of calling 911, the victim and two others jumped into a van and chased the Kia, WLS-TV reported. Both vehicles struck several cars before crashing into each other, about a mile from the original carjacking, according to the television station.
According to police, the Kia burst into flames and the carjacker fled the area, the Tribune reported. The victim and the other two people inside the van were taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the newspaper.
“When the car was burning, we heard a small explosion,” Melva Sanchez, whose car was damaged, told WLS. “All of us were very scared.”
Veronica Arroyo said her Nissan Pathfinder was totaled.
”I started to cry because it was our family’s only means of transportation,” Arroyo told WLS. ”But we are OK, thank God. My children are OK and that’s all that matters.”
No arrests have been made, police said.
