A Cook County man could spend the next several decades behind bars for hijacking a vehicle at gunpoint. The Braidwood Police Department said Jamiyah Johnson, 32, of Chicago allegedly entered into a vehicle without permission and demanded the female driver at gunpoint to drive in the area of Division Street and Coal City Road in Braidwood around 7:30 a.m. on March 10th. After a short drive, Johnson told the female to exit the vehicle as he fled onto Interstate 55 northbound towards Chicago.
The Braidwood Police Department was able to track Johnson’s movements via the vehicles GPS system. The vehicle was located in the 6800 block of South Paxton Road in Chicago a few hours after the initial incident. Several witnesses were interviewed, and Johnson was positively identified as the suspect in this case. He was arrested by the Braidwood Police Department, Grundy County Proactive Unit and parole officers from the Illinois Department of Corrections in the South Paxton Road area around 2:20 p.m. on March 13th.
He has been charged with Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking and Armed Habitual Criminal, both class X felonies; Aggravated Unlawful Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle, a class one felony; Unlawful Possession of a Weapon by a Felony, a class two felony and Aggravated Unlawful Restraint, a class three felony. He remains in the Will County Jail on a $2.5 million bond. If convicted on the Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking charge, Johnson is looking at anywhere from 21 to 60 years in prison.
Johnson was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of a controlled substance, a class four felony in 2010; five years for Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon in 2012; three years for Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon in 2015 and six years for Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Possessing a Stolen Vehicle in 2019. All those convictions were in Cook County.