Three Chicago residents have been indicted in a string of violent carjackings amid a surge of vehicle thefts and robberies across the nation. A federal indictment says the Chicago group attempted several carjackings in September 2020, used guns to threaten drivers, fatally shot two people, and made fast food runs using the stolen vehicles and the carjacking victims’ credit cards. Carjackings have spiked in some cities since the COVID-19 pandemic, including in Washington, D.C, where incidents have multiplied by over five times from 2019 to 2023. Recent carjacking victims in Washington D.C. include a former Trump administration official, congressperson from Texas and an FBI agent, USA Today reports. Three Chicago residents – Edson Resendez, Maverick Cela and Prezila Apreza – could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted of conspiring to commit multiple carjackings in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. It also accuses them of committing murder during a carjacking and murdering a second person while using a carjacked vehicle.
Carjackings in Washington D.C. far surpassed other cities, rising by 565% from 2019 to 2023, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. Michael Gill, who served under Trump as the chief of staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, died on Saturday after he was shot by a man on a carjacking spree on Jan. 29. In November, an FBI agent was carjacked at gunpoint in Washington D.C., one month after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) was carjacked by armed assailants near the Capitol building. Antwon Haynie, 26, of Washington was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to crimes related to two armed carjackings. The Metropolitan Police Department said there have been 57 carjacking offenses in Washington in 2024, and eight carjacking arrests. Thirty of the carjackings have involved firearms.
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