CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors charged three men with carjacking Tuesday, saying they took a man’s car at gunpoint from a Far South Side gas station. Two of the men are accused of trying to carjack another driver, but they couldn’t figure out how to drive the victim’s vehicle.
Marquell Davis, 22, Ramone Bradley, 26, and Edmund Singleton, 34, are already fighting state carjacking charges for the same crimes, which occurred on the evening of November 3, 2022.
Around 7 p.m. that evening, the trio allegedly drove a stolen Jeep SRT into a gas station in the 10000 block of South Michigan and stopped next to a 43-year-old man who was filling up his Infiniti.
Davis got out of the Jeep and pointed a tan handgun at the victim’s back, prosecutors said. The man turned around to find a gun pointed at his face. He fell to the ground and Davis allegedly demanded his keys, searched his pockets and then jumped into the passenger seat of the Infiniti, which an accomplice drove away. The Jeep followed them.
A prosecutor told Judge Kelly that surveillance video placed Davis at the scene of the hijacking, and his phone pinged the gas station and along the route followed the car after the crime.
Just over two hours later, the same stolen Jeep pulled into a gas station in the 3100 block of South Michigan, a half-mile from Chicago Police headquarters.
Prosecutors allege video footage shows Davis and Singleton getting out of the Jeep and pointing a gun at a 44-year-old man who had just filled up his BMW with gas. Like the first victim, this man fell to the ground when Davis allegedly demanded his keys and searched his pockets.
However, when Davis took control of the BMW X6, he had difficulty operating it due to the special features installed in the car that were designed to accommodate the victim’s disabilities. Officials did not address the type of equipment involved or the victim’s disability during Davis’ hearing.
Davis gave up, got back in the Jeep with Singleton and fled.
A Chicago police helicopter located the Jeep a short time later and followed it for 23 minutes until it stopped in the 9400 block of South Woodlawn and three people ran from it.
Officers arrested Davis nearby with a backpack containing a phone, the second victim’s identification card and 58 pills they believed to be ecstasy, prosecutors said. Davis had the Infiniti’s key fob in his pocket and police allegedly found a loaded brown handgun in a garbage can along the path he took as he ran from the Jeep.
When prosecutors charged Singleton in the carjackings, they sought detention without bail, in part because he was released on federal supervision for unlawful transportation of firearms.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said Tuesday that Bradley faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Davis and Singleton face mandatory sentences of seven years to life in prison.
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