One man dead after a police chase

One man is dead and a woman injured after a carjacking and chase early Wednesday morning that started in Glenview, passed through Evanston and Skokie and ended in Morton Grove, police said.

Twenty-year-old Christopher Walsh, accompanied by a 19-year-old female, allegedly kidnapped a 22-year-old Glenview man at knifepoint while stealing his car in a residential area of Glenview. All three people involved in the kidnapping were acquaintances, Glenview Police Cmdr. Jeff Ader said.

After Walsh and the woman dropped off the victim in Evanston around 1:30 a.m., the Glenview man reported the carjacking to Evanston police, who alerted area police departments. Police found a superficial cut from a knife on the man’s body.

Skokie police later spotted Walsh and the woman, and a police chase ensued. During the chase, the driver lost control of the car after it brushed a parked car, causing the car to crash into the side of a building at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Marmora Avenue in Morton Grove.

Morton Grove paramedics transported Walsh and the female passenger to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, 1775 Dempster St., where Walsh was pronounced dead. The woman, who had been thrown from the car in the crash, was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“We’re still collecting statements and evidence, but preliminarily it doesn’t look like any charges will be made,” Ader said. “From everything we’ve gathered, it looks like the driver was the main player, and you can’t charge a dead man.”

– Rebecca Gausnell