2 rideshare drivers tased before Chicago carjackings in Logan Square, East Garfield Park: CPD

CHICAGO (WLS) — Two rideshare drivers were tased before having their cars stolen from them in separate incidents just hours apart Monday night in Chicago, police said.

The carjackings were very, very similar. In both cases, a rideshare driver was tased by two male suspects in the back seat of his vehicle, Chicago police said.

The first incident happened shortly before 10 p.m. in the 2900-block of North Sawyer Avenue in the Logan Square neighborhood.

The 56-year-old driver had picked up two male riders when one of them produced a taser and stunned the driver multiple times on the torso, police said.

The victim stopped the vehicle and got out. The suspects then stole the victim’s black Toyota Highlander and fled south on Sawyer, according to CPD.

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The driver was not injured, and declined to go to the hospital.

The other carjacking happened an hour and twenty minutes later in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.
In that incident, a 37-year-old driver was tased in the back of his neck — again, by two male passengers. That driver stopped his gray Toyota Camry, and the victims stole it, police said, driving west from the 3500-block of West Ohio Street.

The victim suffered an abrasion to the neck and refused to go to the hospital.

Police would not immediately say if the two carjackings are linked, despite their similarities.

No one was in custody Tuesday morning.

“Obviously makes me sad to hear, and I always think a lot of Lyft and Uber drivers are just trying to make ends meet, and, you know, typically it’s a second career for a lot of those folks,” Logan Square resident Chris Mills said.

The Northwest Side carjacking happened right in front of Bill Bein’s home, but he never heard a thing.

“This is not a troubled neighborhood, and it really to me is proof that bad things can happen in good neighborhoods,” he said.

East Garfield Park resident Theresa Teamer said she just wants the crime to stop.

“I wish it would stop, too. I wish it would stop, too, but they’re not going to stop. They’re going to continue to rob, steal and kill,” she said.