Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference that the boy was arrested Friday on suspicion of felony aggravated vehicular carjacking.
Brown said: “Let me say that again, because that stops the conscience. Our task force arrested an 11-year-old for a carjacking... This is a sad state of affairs. Unfortunately this 11-year-old has been arrested before and he is considered a prolific carjacker in our city.”
The boy was arrested in connection to a Nov. 14 case where a 48-year-old woman was carjacked.
ABC7 reports that the victim was a Chicago police sergeant’s wife.
Two weeks before Friday’s arrest, the boy was arrested and charged with being in a stolen car.
Brown says the boy will face juvenile charges as a result of the arrests.
"The 11-year-old seems to be driving these carjackings," Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said. "So he's not just there, I guess, along for the ride with other individuals."
Mayor Lori Lightfoot also reacted Monday to the news of such a young child arrested in connection with such a serious offense.
"I'm going to be meeting with the juvenile judges here relatively soon to address that issue," Lightfoot said. "We have a crisis and it's a crisis that they have to own some responsibility for. We cannot keep putting these kids back out on the streets with no support, no resources, no monitoring."
The police department said this incident was not an isolated one. The 11-year-old is being investigated for his role in several other recent carjackings around the city.”