A Chicago man driving home from work Wednesday afternoon saw his passenger-side door suddenly jerked open and a terrified man jump into the car, pleading to be rescued from an attacker who wanted to kill him with a knife.
The driver, whom police declined to identify Friday, took the passenger a few miles to Austin Avenue and Roosevelt Road where he got out of the car and disappeared.
It wasn’t until Friday morning that the driver read news accounts of a fugitive’s escape from police on the Eisenhower Expressway and realized he had inadvertently provided the getaway ride, police said Friday.
Police were mostly relieved, not angry, said Bellwood Chief Gregory Moore.
“We didn’t know if there had been a kidnapping, or a carjacking, or what,” Moore said. “We had feared the worst, and we’re just happy the man is OK.”
The fugitive, Pierre Blake, 23, of the 3400 block of Jackson Street, Bellwood, still was at large Friday. A warrant was issued Thursday charging him with violation of his parole in a drug case, and police were continuing to check his friends, family members and hangouts in an effort to find him.
The driver was embarrassed, Moore said.
“Blake didn’t display a weapon and he didn’t make any threats,” the chief said. “The man thought he was helping a person in distress.”
The incident began Wednesday afternoon in Bellwood, where an officer attempted to stop Blake’s Ford Explorer for speeding, Moore said. Blake fled and with a Bellwood squad car in pursuit drove onto the Eisenhower Expressway eastbound at 25th Avenue.
A few miles east in Forest Park, Blake’s vehicle allegedly struck a car parked on the shoulder and a moving car.
Blake was last seen riding away in the passenger seat of a dark colored Ford Focus that had slowed to get around the stopped Explorer, the chief said.
Police feared for the safety of the driver of the car, Moore said.
