$1 Million Bail for Accused Purse Snatcher, Carjacker, Killer of 11-Year-Old Boy

Almost two years ago, little 11-year-old Donovan Turnage, his brother and his dad were on their way to get Christmas haircuts when a van driven by a speeding Rockie Douglas blindsided their Chevy Suburban on Chicago’s South Side and then sped away.

Douglas led cops on wild chases through Chicago, Oak Lawn and Burbank — stealing purses and two more vehicles — before disappearing into Wisconsin for a few days. On Christmas Eve 2013, however, U.S. Marshals caught up with him in Milwaukee as his car idled in a McDonald’s drive-thru window.

On Wednesday, Douglas — who’s been sitting in a Wisconsin jail cell all this time — went before a Cook County judge who set his bail at $1 million. Douglas, 36, of Beach Park, faces two counts of murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking with a weapon and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

The grief and havoc he caused two years ago spread across several communities.

The Chevy Suburban the Turnages were in that Saturday morning, just a few days before Christmas, spun five times from the force of the collision that day — and little Donovan was thrown into the street at Garfield Boulevard and Halsted Street. The boy was dead as soon as he hit the concrete. Derrick Turnage, Donovan’s brother, said the van must have been going 100 miles an hour.

Chicago Police were chasing Douglas, who was suspected of stealing that van.

After crashing, police said, Douglas walked to a nearby gas station and carjacked another vehicle at gunpoint, a tan SUV.

“Before I know it, he was in front of my face, with a gun, pushing me out of the way of my vehicle,” Clinton Banks told ABC Chicago.

Derrick Turnage saw Douglas speed away as his brother lie dead in the street.

Douglas made his way to Oak Lawn, where he snatched a purse at the Jewel-Osco, 8801 S. Ridgeland Ave., according to police. The woman said a tan SUV pulled alongside her and the driver grabbed her purse right off her arm. A man nearby tried to grab the driver through the window, but the SUV sped away. Several Oak Lawn squad cars chased the SUV down 87th Street, and the chase was called off in Burbank.

The SUV ended up at a gas station in the 7800 block of S. Harlem Ave., where the driver stopped, snatched a purse from a woman pumping gas, and sped away again. Alsip police spotted the driver speeding recklessly on Cicero Avenue at about 2 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, Douglas parked his SUV on the shoulder of the I-294 ramp to I-88. Here in DuPage County, police believe, Douglas carjacked a Honda Accord from a man who stopped to see if the driver needed help. The car headed north and disappeared into Wisconsin.

Three days later, on Christmas Eve, Douglas was in a McDonald’s drive-thru with a woman when U.S. Marshals surrounded his car and arrested him.

Douglas is a notorious troublemaker who bamboozled those responsible for keeping tabs on him, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Douglas, who grew up in Lake County, has a criminal record on both sides of the state line, and a Tribune investigation last year revealed that he was free on the day of the fatal car accident after slipping through gaps in monitoring and communication between authorities in Wisconsin and Illinois.

He misled probation officials in Wisconsin, records show, and accrued arrests and convictions and even spent four months in Cook County’s residential boot camp without Wisconsin authorities learning of his continued legal troubles, which might have triggered the revocation of his probation in that state. Probation experts criticized both Wisconsin and Cook County authorities for failing to track him more closely.

The Turnages, of Chicago Lawn, filed a lawsuit in March 2014 against Chicago Police, accusing officers of conducting an unnecessary and dangerous police chase which led to Donovan’s death.

“A child’s life was cut short by something that never should have happened in the first place,” said Annette Turnage, Donovan’s mom, in a written statement at the time. “I want justice for my son.”

He was a “goofy boy” who loved video games and his pet turtle.

“No family should have to endure this kind of heartbreak,” his mom said.