Lanes reopen after person fatally struck by vehicle on Eisenhower Expressway

The outbound Eisenhower Expressway reopened Friday morning after a boy was hit and killed by a vehicle overnight on the Near West Side.

Demetrius Jay Stewart, 15, was struck by multiple vehicles about 12:40 a.m. in the westbound lanes of Interstate 290 near Ashland Avenue, Illinois State Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The vehicle did not remain at the scene and the incident is being investigated as a hit-and-run, police said.

State police initially said the person killed was an adult based on preliminary reports, but later said he was a minor.

Shortly before he was hit, troopers had located a car on the expressway shoulder that was apparently stolen in an earlier carjacking, state police said. Three people were standing near a vehicle on the expressway, and when a trooper got out of his squad car, Stewart and another person ran into traffic.

Another male was taken into custody, state police said.

The carjacking occurred about 11 p.m. Thursday in the 1500 block of South Christiana Avenue in Lawndale, according to Chicago police. A 29-year-old woman was gathering items outsider her silver Chevrolet Impala when three people approached and one of them pointed a gun at her. She dropped her keys on the ground and the three suspects grabbed them and drove away.

The juvenile suspect arrested by state troopers is being detained by Chicago police for further investigation, authorities said.

Westbound lanes on I-290 were closed at Ashland for several hours while authorities investigated, state police said. All lanes reopened shortly before 8 a.m.

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