A man was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison for carjacking a woman last August on the Stevenson Expressway after a hit-and-run crash involving a state trooper.
Chicago resident Cassidy D. Pettis, 26, plead guilty to aggravated vehicular hijacking for the August 25, 2017, incident, according to Illinois State Police.
About 4:15 p.m. that day, a trooper saw a red Volkswagen driving on the shoulder of I-55 and exit at Damen in the McKinley Park neighborhood on the South Side. The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Pettis, “made an abrupt turn, changing his direction of travel and struck the trooper’s squad car,” ISP said in a statement.
The Volkswagen then got back on the Stevenson going northbound, and as it approached the ramp to the Dan Ryan, “forced another vehicle to stop,” ISP said. “Pettis exited his vehicle and displayed a handgun at the female driver of the vehicle. He then used the gun to break a window of the car. The female victim exited her car and Pettis fled the scene in her vehicle.”
After a three-week investigation, Pettis was identified as a suspect, and an arrest warrant was issued by a Cook County judge. After his arrest by state police, Pettis was held without bail in the Cook County Jail.
