Officials say a Woodstock man attacked and then carjacked an Uber driver in Chicago after he became upset with the driver’s music selection.
Jose Ortiz-Perez, 30, of Woodstock, was charged with one count of vehicular hijacking, a Class 1 felony.
The incident happened around 11 p.m. on August 17 at Franklin Street and Adams Street in Chicago.
Prosecutors said an Uber driver picked up Ortiz-Perez and two others at the W Hotel with a dropoff at TAO Chicago.
During the ride, Ortiz-Perez asked the driver to change the music but the driver could not find music that the man liked.
Prosecutors said the driver turned off the music and Ortiz-Perez, who was seated in the rear, began to punch, elbow and kick the driver.
The victim was struck multiple times in the head, face, eye, neck and arm.
One of the passengers tried stopping Ortiz-Perez during the attack but the man continued to strike the driver, prosecutors said.
The driver stopped the vehicle and tried to deflect the hits. The three passengers exited the vehicle.
The victim exited the car and tried to detain Ortiz-Perez by holding his arm, prosecutors said. The two then got into a physical fight.
Prosecutors said Ortiz-Perez stole the driver’s 2020 Honda Civic but the vehicle stopped a short distance away because the victim had the car key in his possession.
Ortiz-Perez grabbed the victim’s phone from inside the Honda, exited the vehicle and threw the phone at the driver before fleeing the scene on foot, prosecutors said.
The victim was dizzy, threw up, weak and had shortness of breath following the attack.
The incident inside the car was captured on a dashcam video and the victim positively identified Ortiz-Perez in a photo lineup.
The Chicago Police Department’s Vehicle Hijacking Mission Team arrested Ortiz-Perez around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday at his residence in the 1700 block of Woodside Drive in Woodstock, according to a police report.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Ortiz-Perez pending trial. The petition was denied by a Cook County judge, who released the man on electronic home monitoring.