Vietnam veteran, 73, dies of a heart attack while trying to fight off carjackers who punched him in the head as he ran errands in Chicago
A Vietnam War veteran died of a heart attack after two men attempted to steal his car as he was running errands at a strip mall in Chicago.
Keith Cooper, 73, was on his way to get groceries at a small shopping plaza at Hyde Park - just a few blocks away from former President Barack Obama's Chicago home -on Wednesday afternoon when two men approached him.
Police said the two men demanded Cooper's Hyundai SUV at around 12.35pm, and punched him repeatedly in the head until he collapsed of a heart attack.
Some witnesses tried to fight off the attackers while two or three others performed CPR on Cooper, the Chicago Tribune reported. The two suspects then fled without the vehicle.
Cooper, a former Marine who served two tours in Vietnam, was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
Two people are now being questioned in connection with the attack, police said, crediting witnesses for helping track down the suspects, WLS reports.
Police told DailyMail.com charges are still pending.
Keith Cooper , a Vietnam War veteran, died of a heart attack after two men approached him in an attempted carjacking Wednesday afternoon
The attack came just before Cooper's 74th birthday, for which he was raising money for a local church on Facebook
Cooper's death came just before his 74th birthday, family members said, for which he was raising money for a local church on Facebook.
His daughter, Keinika Carlton, was supposed to meet him for an appointment at 1.30pm that day, she said, but a while later, her older sister called to tell her she had talked to police, and their dad was in the hospital.
When she got there, she told the Tribune, she was told that her father had died.
'I'm just in shock,' she said in a later interview with WLS. 'I'm still in shock because this is not the way I thought my day was going to go.'
'He didn't deserve this,' she told the Tribune. 'I mean nobody does. This wasn't necessary. Honestly, I wish they just waited till he went into the store and took the car. Because at least he would still be here.'
Cooper had worked as a Lyft driver after retiring from his job driving trucks and selling books and jewelry.
He loved jazz, Star Trek and horror movies, Keinika said, telling the Sun Times she would remember him for 'his love, his support, his smile his coming over for no reason.'
'It makes me so angry his car was worth more than his life to them, and that made no sense,' she said, adding that the suspects did not even take his car following the assault.
'It was two guys preying on a senior citizen,' her husband, Curtis Carlton, told the Sun Times following his death. 'I'm just wrestling with that. I can't fathom it. I can't understand why you would try to do that.'
His daughter, Keinika Carlton, said she was still in shock by what happened. She was supposed to meet her father that day for an appointment, she said
Cooper was reportedly running errands at a Hyde Park strip mall, seen here, when the two men approached him and started demanding his Hyundai SUV
A police officer took a photo of Cooper's car at the strip mall on Wednesday
Carjackings in the city have increased in recent years with 2020 seeing a 135 percent spike compared to 2019 - with 603 carjackings reported in 2019 and 1,416 reported in 2020, according to The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government research organization.
And between January 1 and March 11 of this year, the Federation reports, there were 375 carjacking reports in the city, compared with 161 during the same time period in 2020.
The organization notes in its report that there had also been increases in vehicular thefts in other cities across the nation including Minneapolis, New Orleans, Oakland, Washington D.C. and Louisville, Kentucky, attributing the rise in crime to the pandemic, when people felt disenfranchised, teenagers were disconnected from school and youth programs, cities took steps to prevent adolescents from being held in detention facilities, people felt more anonymous wearing masks and police had trouble identifying suspects.
In 2020, the organization reports, only 5 percent of the 1,416 carjacking cases reported in the city resulted in arrests, but in February, former Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx said that her office brings charges in 90 percent of adult carjacking cases and 80 percent of juvenile cases.
It is up to the court to determine punishment and sentencing.
Under Illinois state law, vehicular hijacking carries a prison sentence of four to 15 years for an adult, with 'aggravated vehicular hijacking,' carrying a longer sentence depending on the severity of the case, with vehicular hijacking with a firearm requiring 15 years be added to the sentence.
Sentences for juvenile carjacking, meanwhile, ranges from five years of court probation to detention in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice until the age of 21.
Carjackings have been on the rise throughout Chicago in recent years
However, the Civic Federation reports, many do not result in arrests
The Chicago Police Department has since expanded its carjacking task force, adding 40 officers and four new sergeants to investigate carjacking reports in January, according to NBC Chicago, with a dedicated carjacking team in each of the city's five detective areas.
But the police department has faced a slew of departures in recent months.
A total of 363 officers retired from the Chicago Police Department between January and June this year, with another 56 on track to quit in July, according to figures from the police pension board.
If the trend continues, the mass departure will even dwarf the 560 retirements last year, when swathes of officers quit amid protests over the police murder of George Floyd and demands to defund the police.
With only around 13,000 cops remaining, Fox News reported that Chicago's 117,000 gang members now outnumber officers by roughly 10 to one, at a time when the Windy City is facing a surge in violent crime.
Chicago's crime surge: Shootings spike by 11% and sexual assaults by 23% as city struggles to combat violence
The statistics below show change in crime from January 1 to July 11, 2021, compared with the same period in 2020:
Murder -1%
Shooting incidents +11%
Criminal sexual assault +23%
Robbery -5%
Aggravated battery -6%
Burglary - 39%
Theft +5%
Motor vehicle theft +8%
Overall crime -6%
More than 100 people were shot and at least 17 killed over July 4 weekend alone, while shootings have spiked 11 percent so far in 2021 compared to the same period last year.
And just yesterday, Chicago officials announced they are launching a two-part 'alternative response' pilot program this fall that takes a more public health approach to responding to 911 calls for mental health emergencies.
It will involve dispatching a team that includes a mental health professional and a paramedic to mental health-related calls, reported Chicago Sun-Times.
One program will involve sending a paramedic and a mental health clinician for 'behavioral health calls.'
A second program will involve sending a paramedic with a 'recovery specialist' for calls relating to substance abuse, the outlet reported.
It is not fully clear how 911 dispatchers will determine which calls should be responded to by police officers or by mental health professionals.
However, the city said mental health professionals will be stationed inside 911 call centers to help monitor situations and, from October, will be responding to some 911 calls by phone.
The new initiatives are part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's $3.5 million Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement plan unveiled last month.
The plan also includes three new 24/7 drop-off centers across the city for people struggling with mental health issues.
One of the sites is already up and running at the Roseland Community Triage Center, while the other two are set to open on the north and west sides of the city.