Sun-Times Media Wire, January 9, 2013 10:12PM
A Southwest Side teen died Wednesday, more than a week after robbers allegedly ripped him and a woman out of a vehicle and beat them before driving off in a New Year’s Day carjacking.
Ezequiel Velasquez, 17, and a 21-year-old woman were headed westbound on 40th Street when they encountered a dark Chevrolet Suburban blocking the street near Pulaski Road about 6 a.m., authorities said.
A group of several suspects got out of the SUV and approached the pair in their Chrysler Sebring to ask if they had any gasoline, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said.
When they replied they did not, the suspects pulled the woman from the car and began beating her, O’Brien said. When the teen got out of the car, the suspects began beating him, then used the car to push the SUV away from the scene.
Velasquez, of the 6100 block of South Massasoit Avenue, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, initially in serious condition, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
The woman did not seek medical treatment, O’Brien said. Police could not immediately say how she knew the teen.
The Chrysler was later found in the 4200 block of South Campbell Avenue, but no one has been arrested in connection with the attack, O’Brien said.
Police say Velasquez has a gang affiliation, and that the carjackers — believed to be ages 17 to 20 — are suspected of having gang affiliations as well, he said.
Area Central detectives had been investigating the beating as a robbery and vehicular hijacking, but will likely re-classify it as a homicide investigation.
Pending the outcome of a Thursday autopsy, Velasquez’s death would be the fifth homicide in Chicago on New Year’s Day, and the fifteenth homicide this year.