Parolee Carjacks Vehicle At Gunpoint In Resident's Driveway: Cops

OAK LAWN, IL — A Lansing man currently on parole carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint in Oak Lawn as the resident was parking the car in her driveway, prosecutors said Monday in court. Gregory Shipp, 34, appeared before Cook County Judge Margaret O’Garek on charges of aggravated vehicular hijacking and driving without a license.

Around 7:50 p.m. March 27, a woman and her young daughter were parking their 2010 KIA in the driveway of her home in the 9700 block of West Merton Avenue. A man, later identified as Shipp, pointed a Springfield Armory .45 caliber gun at the woman’s head and demanded her car, the prosecutor said. The woman relinquished her car and Shipp is said to have entered the car and drive off.

Neighbors told police they saw Shipp walking down the street before they saw the alleged carjacking. One of the neighbors followed the KIA and provided police information about the vehicle’s location as it traveled north on Harlem Avenue.

Oak Lawn police picked up the vehicle and pursued it for 10 minutes. The prosecutor said Shipp evaded police, traveling through several towns until he hit another car at 95th Street and LaGrange Avenue. Shipp ran into the forest preserves where the prosecutor said he was found in the woods by a Burbank police K9.

The prosecutor said officers found the loaded semi-automatic handgun at the crash. The driver of the second car refused medical treatment, but was later evaluated at Advocate Christ Medical Center.

The KIA owner and her daughter were not harmed. She was able to identify Shipp by his clothing, police said. The witness who followed Shipp was also able to positively identify him, according to the charges.

Shipp is currently on parole for a 2009 attempted murder conviction, for which he received a 15-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was released on parole in September 2020. The prosecutor told the judge that Shipp received a 4-year sentence for robbery in 2005. He also has a prior felony conviction for delivery and manufacture of cocaine.

The prosecutor said there was a parole hold on Shipp and asked for a “significant bond.”

“These are extremely violent assertions followed by a violent criminal history,” O’Garek said, setting bail at $750,000.

Should Shipp be able to post bond, O’Garek ordered him to be on electronic monitoring with no movement.

Shipp is due back in court April 20 in Bridgeview.