GRANITE CITY, Ill. — A carjacking in north St. Louis County became the subject of a multi-state police pursuit early Monday morning, police said.
Around 1:30 a.m., officers with the North County Precinct, a subdivision of the St. Louis County Police Department, responded to the 1000 block of Sweepstakes Lane for reports of an armed carjacking. The victim in the incident told police she complied with the suspects' demands to exit her car; the suspect then drove away in her car. The woman, a 21-year-old, was not injured during the carjacking.
Around the same time, a St. Louis County officer in Blackjack spotted the car and attempted to make a traffic stop, but was unsuccessful. The officer then initiated a pursuit with the driver, which continued across the Mississippi River into Illinois. There, both the Illinois State Police and Granite City Police Department assisted the St. Louis County officer.
The Granite City Police Department laid a spike strip along Route 3 in Granite City, which stopped the car the driver had stolen. Officers approached both sides of the car and found both a man and a woman, both 20-years-old, in the front seat. The woman, sitting in the passenger's seat, complied with police and was taken into custody without incident.
In a statement, police said they believed the driver may have picked up the woman after the carjacking in St. Louis County.
The driver was found to be suffering from what appeared to be a wound to the head. Police backed off from the car, believing the man may have been in possession of a firearm. Using their PA system, police gave directions to the man, to which he eventually complied and got out of the car before being taken into custody.
The driver has been identified as Cameron Morris. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office charged him with one count of first-degree robbery, one count of armed criminal action and one count of resisting arrest. He's being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond.
The wound was believed to have come from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was transported to a hospital, where he was last listed as being in critical condition.
The early morning incident shut down most lanes of Route 3 for several hours. Both northbound and southbound lanes have since cleared.
The carjacking and police pursuit is currently under investigation.
