Police: Evanston teen charged with stealing car with boy inside
An 18-year-old teenager faces felony charges after police said he stole an Audi with a 5-year-old Park Ridge boy sleeping in the back seat earlier this week.
A Cook County judge on Saturday denied bail for Deangelo Fountain, of Evanston, who is accused of driving off with the boy Thursday while his mom ran toward the car, screaming.
Surveillance video captured earlier Thursday in a Des Plaines storage facility and an incident at Metro Prep High School, where Fountain is a student, helped lead police to the teenager, Park Ridge police said.
A staff member reported Fountain left the Arlington Heights school Thursday morning in a "disgruntled state" wearing clothing that matched the description of the carjacking suspect, Park Ridge Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen said.
"It was easier to identify him at that point," Jogmen said.
Des Plaines police also received a report of a man asking for bags at the storage facility because of the rain, Jogmen said. Authorities later identified him as Fountain through the surveillance footage, Jogmen said.
Fountain then went to Park Ridge and spotted the Audi Q5 Thursday afternoon in an alley on the 1700 block of Good Avenue, police said.
The 5-year-old boy was sleeping in his car seat when his mom left the vehicle running and got out to unload some packages, police said.
The case prompted an Amber Alert and an uncommon Wireless Emergency Alert, blasting smartphones with a description of the car statewide.
The boy was found unharmed about two hours later in a residential neighborhood in Skokie, where the car had been abandoned with the boy inside, police said.
Someone who had seen the Amber Alert called 911 after spotting the car near Oakton Street and Laramie Avenue.
Jogmen praised the dozens of tips that poured into the Park Ridge police department.
"That's what brought this case to such a quick resolution," he said.
Fountain is being held in Cook County jail on charges of aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated kidnapping and unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle.