Boy On Way To Christmas Haircut Killed In Crash Involving Carjacker

By Jon Graef in News on Dec 22, 2013 4:30PM

Kymberly Janisch

A truly awful story from Saturday afternoon: 11-year-old boy Donovan Turnage was killed after a carjacked vehicle police were pursuing on the city's South Side crashed into the car he was in.

The boy's family told the Sun-Times they were on their way "to get a Christmas haircut with his father and older brother" when the accident occurred.

The Tribune has more:

Donovan Turnage, of the 5900 block of South Artesian Avenue, was a passenger in a Chevrolet Suburban when it was struck by a stolen vehicle about 12:30 p.m. near the intersection of West Garfield Boulevard and South Halsted Street, authorities said.

Shortly before the crash, police attempted to stop a vehicle in the area that had been taken in an armed carjacking, police said. When officers activated their police lights in an attempt to curb the stolen vehicle, the driver sped off and struck the Suburban, police said.

Turnage and another passenger inside the Suburban, a man whose age has not been released, were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Turnage was pronounced dead later that afternoon. DNAInfo reports that, "After crashing into the Suburban, the suspect left his vehicle and carjacked another."

Incredibly, that's not all. Per the Sun-Times:

The carjacker then drove the second stolen vehicle, a silver sport-utility vehicle, to Oak Brook, where he abandoned it on the Tri-State Tollway, according to the Illinois State Police and flagged down a 2007 Honda sedan that he carjacked — the third vehicle he carjacked.

The Sun-Times spoke to the Turnage's family about Donovan, and the picture they paint is heartbreaking:

Donovan Anthony Turnage was a fifth-grader at Morrill Math & Science School.

His mother said he loved football and video games, had a pet bird and a pet turtle and loved being with his family.

Losing him just days before Christmas “is very painful,” she said. “He was looking forward to opening his presents on Christmas.”

...

Donovan had been in the back seat, she said, but “the impact was so hard it threw him out the back passenger window.”

According to DNAInfo, "no one is in custody."

Video via the Trib: