Judge refuses to detain man accused of carjacking Uber driver at gunpoint

Tamar Moses (Chicago Police Department)

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge refused to detain a Chicago man accused of carjacking an Uber driver, even though the man had been arrested for felony gun possession and fleeing police just five days earlier, according to court records.

Tamar Moses, 18, was arrested by Maywood police on April 9 after he allegedly sped away from a traffic stop, struck an unmarked squad car, and was found in possession of a loaded handgun.

Under provisions of Illinois’ criminal justice overhaul legislation called the SAFE-T Act, Moses was released from the police station without being brought before a judge, the court files say.

Just five days later, Chicago police arrested Moses after he was identified as one of two people who fired a handgun while carjacking an Uber driver on the West Side, a CPD arrest report said. The alleged hijacking occurred late on April 8, about three hours before Maywood police arrested Moses.

According to the CPD report, a 37-year-old Uber driver picked Moses and another person up in the 100 block of North Waller, the same block where Waller lives, around 11:30 p.m. As they neared the drop-off point, one of the hijackers fired a gun and ordered the driver to get out, the arrest report said.

Moses allegedly took control of the victim’s Hyundai and drove away. According to documents submitted by the prosecutors in the Maywood and city cases, Moses was driving the Uber driver’s Hyundai when he allegedly fled from Maywood police.

Prosecutors charged Moses with aggravated vehicular hijacking while armed with a firearm and attempted armed robbery while armed with a firearm. In a detention petition, the state informed Judge David Kelly that Moses just turned 18 in February and also cited the pending Maywood cases as reasons Moses should be detained.

Kelly rejected the petition and released Moses with a nighttime curfew, court records show.