Mom Carjacked In Target Lot, 2 Charged Over High-Speed Chase, Crash

WAUKEGAN, IL — A Lake County judge ordered two Zion residents to remain jailed while awaiting trial on charges that they carjacked a woman at gunpoint with her child in the car.

A group of armed carjackers confronted the woman around 2 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the Target at 3050 N. Lewis Ave. in Waukegan, authorities said.

The woman was reportedly able to grab her son from the car before her assailants stole her Dodge SUV and fled south. Authorities said an automated license plate reader alerted officers to the stolen vehicle's location.

Police gave chase, and the carjackers fled through Wadsworth, Gurnee and Park City, reaching 100 mph at times, before crashing in North Chicago.

Four people were taken into custody after running from the crash — the two jailed adults and two children who may face charges in juvenile court. Other suspects may have escaped the perimeter police established around the crash at Argonne and Kennedy drive.

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Elijah Monette, 20, was charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking, possession of a machine gun, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, five counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. He could face more than a decade behind bars if convicted.

J’Keveon Lewis, 18, was charged with possession of a machine gun, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and five counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. A conviction of the most series gun charge could lead to a prison sentence of at least three years.

The Lake County State's Attorney's Office filed petitions to deny pretrial release to both men, which Associate Judge Theodore Potkonjak granted at a detention hearing Tuesday in Waukegan.

Prosecutors noted that Monette had been granted pretrial release for an earlier gun charge in Lake County and a drug charge in Wisconsin.

Lewis, who allegedly recorded a social media video of the police chief showing guns inside the car, was awaiting trial for an earlier machine gun possession charge at the time of his new charges.

The two Zion men are charged with machine gun possession because some of the guns in the car were modified with "switches," which allow them to fire an entire magazine of bullets with a single pull of the trigger.

New penalties for possession of the devices, which were already illegal under federal law, were included in the Protect Illinois Communities Act, the law passed in the wake of the Highland Park shooting that contained a statewide ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

"This was a horrific crime that occurred in broad daylight with no regard for human life," Edgardo Navarro, the chief of Waukegan police, said in a statement, "based on the actions of the offenders."