Police are seeking three suspects who pistol-whipped and robbed two men before setting a van they were driving on fire on the South Side Sunday night.
The incident occurred at 8:20 p.m. when the two victims, 65 and 48, were inside a van on the 6750 block of South Normal Boulevard and the three assailants approached, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.
Police said one of them produced a handgun, demanded money and the victims gave them $400. The attackers then put cloths over the victims’ heads and drove them to a vacant apartment in the 1300 block of West 78th Street where they were pistol-whipped, according to police.
The 65-year-old man was seriously hurt and was in “guarded” condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while the younger man suffered non life-threatening injuries and refused medical attention, police said.
When the suspects fled they ordered the two to stay in the apartment for ten minutes. As the victims waited, they heard sirens approaching, peeked out the window and noticed the vehicle -- which was about a half a block away -- on fire in an alley on the 7700 block of South Ada Street. The vehicle was left totally destroyed in the fire, according to police who said the suspects set it on fire after leaving.
It was not immediately known why the men were targeted and Alfaro did not know what relationship the victims have to each other.
The suspects were not in custody Monday as of 4:30 a.m. and Calumet Area detectives are investigating the incident as an aggravated vehicular hijacking and the police Bomb & Arson Section is probing the arson.
