Police search for carjacker who targeted family with 3-year-old in Park Ridge

PARK RIDGE, Ill. (CBS) -- Police in Park Ridge were searching Friday for a man who carjacked a woman at gunpoint the night before.

At 10:26 p.m. Thursday, Park Ridge police were called to the 7-Eleven store at 814 Higgins Rd.—right at the Cumberland Avenue exit on the Kennedy Expressway.

A woman said she had parked her 2024 white Jeep Grand Cherokee in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven, and went into the store to buy some milk. She left her own mother and her 3-year-old child in the back seat of the car, police said.

The carjacker walked up to the car, pulled a gun, and ordered the grandmother and the child out of the car, police said. They complied.

The woman who had been in the store then came out, and the carjacker pointed the gun at her and demanded her wallet, police said. She complied, and then the carjacker drove away in her car, police said.

Illinois State Police later found the car in the area of 34th and Halsted streets in the Bridgeport neighborhood. It had been involved in the crash, and the carjacker had run off, police said.

Police were not able to find the carjacker.

The carjacker was described as a Black male between 19 and 25 years old, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dark-colored shirt, and blue jeans. Police have released several surveillance photos.

The carjacking remained under investigation late Friday.