Trapped in a stolen car, a 2-year-old boy became the subject of a frantic police chase through Pilsen and downtown Chicago early Monday, watching from the back seat as police fired at the suspect before the car eventually crashed into an office building lobby.
The boy, Manuel Miranda, was shaken but uninjured in the ordeal, which police said began when the 25-year-old suspect hopped into a running car in the 1600 block of South Throop Street and sped off as the boy’s mother dropped off his two siblings at an aunt’s home. It ended 15 minutes later with the man crashing into the American Medical Association Building, 515 N. State St.
The suspect, who is facing charges of aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder, was under guard and listed in fair condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital late Monday with a superficial gunshot wound to his left side.
An officer fired into the car after cornering the suspect several minutes into the chase near the Chicago Board of Trade Building, police said. But the officer’s bullet struck a side mirror on the car, blew out the driver’s side window and ended up in the man’s shirt or jacket, leaving him with a graze wound, police said.
Doctors did find a bullet lodged in his abdomen, but police said that bullet was from a prior, unrelated shooting.
Police Supt. Terry Hillard said the Office of Professional Standards was reviewing the incident, including the decision of the officer, who knew the child was in the car, to fire as the suspect drove at him. Yet he stood by the officer’s actions.
“It went our way today,” he said. “The man upstairs was with us.”
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Monday evening, the boy’s mother, Cynthia Betancourt agreed.
“My son is fine,” she said, with her son, looking tired but healthy, nearby. “I just thank God and all the police.”
Police said they were checking reports that the suspect, who has at least three drug convictions, tried to rob a Pilsen eatery just before the incident, which began just before 8 a.m. Monday.
Betancourt and her mother, Maria Mundo, were dropping off the three children about 7:45 a.m. so Betancourt could apply for a job at a bakery where her husband worked.
The children were asleep, so Betancourt left the engine running as she and her mother carried two of the children to the front of her sister’s home.
They had left Manuel in the back seat, figuring they would get the other kids inside and go back for him.
But as the sister, Maria Elena Ocampo, fiddled with her keys to open a front door, she noticed the car pulling away.
Betancourt flagged down Monroe District Officer Robert Gamez in an unmarked car, told him what had happened and jumped in as Gamez gave chase.
Police said the suspect drove around the neighborhood, then entered the Kennedy Expressway toward downtown.
Monroe District Officer Andrea LaBelle, who eventually made the arrest, said police “thought we had him pinned in several times, but he just got away.”
Police nearly stopped the vehicle on Van Buren Street, near the Board of Trade.
Several squads had boxed in the car, and officers got out to confront the suspect and begin clearing pedestrians from the busy intersection, police said.
But as they approached, police said, the suspect maneuvered the car out of the jam and aimed for an officer.
“This car is about to run the officer over,” police spokesman Pat Camden said. “He can see the baby behind the driver.”
As the suspect drove at him, the officer fired a shot, Camden said. The suspect again got away, but made it only about a mile north before driving across a small plaza and crashing the nose of the car through the lobby window of the AMA building.
When asked about the chase, Officer LaBelle said, “I have kids at home, so naturally when you get a call like that, you get a little adrenaline going.”
Betancourt and her son were reunited soon after LaBelle made the arrest.
“When he saw me,” Betancourt said, “he just hugged me and gave me a kiss. … He never cried at all.”