For the second time this week Chicago police issued another community alert to warn others about carjackings on the city’s Northwest and Far Southwest sides, and NBC 5 talked to one victim who said he was attacked in the Roseland neighborhood over the weekend.
Mujeeb Uddin is counting his blessings this holidays after spending Sunday night in the hospital.
“It was very scary,” he said. “I thought I was dead.”
The husband and father of four was stopped in his car near 113th Street and Michigan Avenue at approximately 4:30 p.m. when two men with guns approached his car and demanded his keys.
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“He just pointed the gun on my back,” he said. “The guy inside he said don’t move.”
Uddin feared for his life. He got out of the car and said what happened next was a blur.
“They just told me to lie down, calm down, you had been shot in the head, hurry up and call the police,” he said. “We have the ambulance they’re coming in a few minutes hold on keep breathing.”
Police initially said paramedics took the 43-year-old victim to the hospital in critical condition. Doctors ran several tests and scans at the hospital, but couldn’t find the gunshot wound or the bullet.
Police later said the victim was hit in the back of the head with a gun. The victim said the two men got away with some cash from his console but left behind the car.
“They are still in shocked. My kids, my wife, my mom,” he said. “They couldn’t believe what I had gone through and survive."
The Chicago Police Department has seen an increase in carjackings in 2020. A spokesperson told NBC 5 the number of cases has more than doubled this year to 1,400 from 604 in 2019.
Police recently released a new video on Facebook to warn others about the crime and how carjackers even have their eyes on rideshare drivers.
Uddin knows he won’t be the last victim.
“You can’t kill someone just for a little bit of money,” he said. “The world is a beautiful place so let us live.”
