A group of children armed with firearms is behind a series of auto thefts in Chicago, with suspects aged 10 to 17, according to local police.
A group of four to six African-American men allegedly approached more than a dozen victims between June 23 and July 18, demanding their vehicles and property, the Chicago Police Department said.
On two occasions, the suspects allegedly fired, but no injuries were reported.
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“I am afraid to use my garage,” one of the victims, a 44-year-old elementary school teacher named Alyssa Blanchard, told Fox 32. “I don’t feel safe in my neighborhood.”
The group approached her as she was entering her garage on July 14, the outlet reported. She said she saw a group of children approaching, one about 11 years old, and at least two of them carrying pistols.
They pointed guns at her head, ordered her to get out of the car, and stole it along with her bag, which she said had about $ 300 in cash inside.
The thieves used Blanchard’s stolen BMW the next day to rob a 21-year-old woman in a hospital parking lot, Fox 32 reported.
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The suspects are all men with slim builds and a range from 5 feet to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, according to a police press release. The victims were mainly in parked cars or entering service stations.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has criticized Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for recent reports of rampant crime in the city.
“This is on a street in America run by an abandoned Democratic mayor who is doing nothing to stop this, so the president is very upset about this,” McEnany said Tuesday morning on “Fox & Friends,” a day after dozens of Chicago police leaders said dozens. of the officers were ambushed and wounded during clashes with protesters near a statue of Christopher Columbus.
The weekend gun violence in Windy City left at least 10 people dead and 60 wounded, including at least 10 minors, police said.
“You have children who were shot,” said McEnany. “People who have died, about a dozen people, every weekend, more people die in the city than in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is incredible.”
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For its part, Lightfoot has been calling on city residents for peace on the streets.
“Thoughts and prayers just aren’t enough right now,” she said in response to the death of a 7-year-old girl named Natalia Wallace, who was shot and killed while playing outside her grandmother’s home on Memorial Day. the independence. “Sadness in itself is not enough. What it says is that we have to do better as a city. “
Talia Kaplan of Fox News contributed to this report.
