POLICE SHOOT SUSPECT IN 7-YEAR-OLD GIRL’S MURDER DURING CHASE
DAVID STRUETT, TOM SCHUBA & SOPHIE SHERRY REPORT,
A suspect in the weekend murder of a 7-year-old girl at a West Side McDonald’s was chased by police on the Eisenhower Expressway on Thursday afternoon and shot while he allegedly tried to carjack someone, police said.
Police shot the man multiple times after he crashed a vehicle and then tried to carjack a family on inbound I-290 near Mannheim Road, Police Supt. David Brown told reporters.
Brown said the man was wanted in the murder of Jaslyn Adams, who was shot Sunday afternoon inside a car with her father in Homan Square.
Shortly after 4 p.m., Chicago police officers performing surveillance of the suspect in a western suburb attempted to stop the suspect’s vehicle on the expressway, Brown said. That’s when the suspect crashed on the shoulder of the roadway and attempted to carjack a vehicle carrying a family.
The officers then shot the suspect multiple times, Brown said.
“We don’t know if the offender shot back. We can’t confirm that at this point,” he said. Two guns allegedly belonging to the suspect were recovered at the scene.
Brown said the suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police spokesman Tom Ahern said the man was expected to survive. No officers were hurt.
“There were other people involved” in the incident, Brown said, but no one else was taken into custody.
Brown said the shooting is being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Jaslyn was killed Sunday after two people exited a car and opened fire at a McDonald’s drive-thru at 3200 W. Roosevelt Road. Her father, Jontae Adams, was treated for a gunshot wound to his torso, police said.
Jaslyn’s grandmother, Lawanda McMullen, told the Sun-Times she was relieved to learn one of the suspected gunmen had been arrested.
But McMullen said she still has lingering concerns about the investigation into Jaslyn’s killing, including whether the man who was shot and taken into custody was actually involved.
“Right now, I just don’t know how to feel,” McMullen said. “If he is the killer, hopefully we can catch both killers [and] we can get a full investigation so our family can come to some type of closure.”
Wracked with grief and waiting for answers, McMullen said she now feels trapped in “a nightmare that I haven’t woken up from.”
“I still haven’t ate. I can barely sleep,” she said. “It’s just like we’re at a standstill right now.”