West Garfield Park

Passenger Shoots Lyft Driver During Botched Carjacking on West Side

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Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Lyft

A ride-share driver was in serious condition after he was shot by his passenger Wednesday in an attempted carjacking in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

The passenger shot the driver at 1:30 p.m. while trying to take the car at the end of ride in the 4200 block of West Maypole Avenue, Chicago police said.

Officers found the 48-year-old driver with a gunshot wound to the chest in the back of his Dodge Charger, police said.

The man, a Lyft driver, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was serious, according to the Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt, who at first incorrectly said the driver had died.

No arrest had was reported.

Police have reported several instances of ride-share drivers targeted in carjackings by their passengers. In February, a 33-year-old man who was pulled out of his vehicle at gunpoint in West Town. Also that month, two teens were charged with carjacking ride-share drivers in the Lawndale neighborhood.

Chicago police responded to 340 carjackings in January and February. Last year, 1,417 carjackings were reported across the city, more than double than the previous year.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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