Building security scares off armed carjackers targeting woman, child in South Loop: police

CHICAGO - Three armed carjackers were thwarted by security guards early Wednesday when the suspects tried to take a woman’s car in the South Loop but were unable to start it, police said.

She was placing her child in her vehicle about 5 a.m. in the 2100 block of South Michigan Avenue, near Cermak Road, when three suspects pulled up in another vehicle, Chicago police said.

One suspect jumped into the 36-year-old woman’s car but couldn’t start it, police said.

Another suspect, armed a handgun, got inside the car and also tried to start it — but failed.

As building security came out to the commotion, the suspects drove off in the vehicle they arrived in, police said.

It wasn’t clear if the child was in the car when the suspects tried to take the car. No one was injured.

Police did not immediately have suspect descriptions.

The attempted carjacking comes at the heels of a rash of carjacking on the South Side, allegedly at the hands armed children between 10 and 17 years old.

The kids are wanted in connection to at least 16 carjackings, including one in the parking lot of Trinity Hospital in Calumet Heights. Gunshots were fired in two of the other carjackings, but no one was hit.