A Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran died of a heart attack Wednesday after two carjackers beat him relentlessly.
Two men attacked 73-year-old Keith Cooper during an attempt to steal the veteran’s Hyundai SUV vehicle as he was running errands at a shopping plaza in Chicago’s Hyde Park, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The two carjackers repeatedly punched Cooper in the head, causing him to suffer from cardiac arrest at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Witnesses of the incident fought off the attackers and attempted to keep Cooper conscious until authorities arrived, the Sun-Times reported. With the bystanders’ help, police tracked down the two unidentified suspects and took them into custody, the outlet reported. No charges have currently been announced. (RELATED: 48 Shot, 10 Fatally During Another Bloody Weekend In Lightfoot’s Chicago)
Keith Cooper, a 73-year-old veteran, was running errands at a Hyde Park shopping strip when he was punched and killed by two carjackers. https://t.co/c7Ukp4IjKm
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) July 15, 2021
Keinika Carlton, Cooper’s daughter, received a call from her older sister with the news regarding her father, leading her to pick up her father’s car from the shopping plaza hours after the attack, according to the Sun-Times. Carlton reportedly had plans to visit her father that day.
Carlton hopes that justice is served to the suspects that are responsible for her father’s tragic death, according to the Sun-Times.
“I just hope that justice is served with the two young men,” she told the outlet. “And that they understand and realize, you know, you took a life for a vehicle that you didn’t even get and it wasn’t worth it.”
As the city witnessed 317 homicides between Jan. 1 and June 22, 2021, Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown argued at a June 28 press conference that the city’s violent crime surge is largely due to the release of criminals by the court system and a high number of gun sales. As the country faced a deadly Independence Day weekend, 13 people were killed and another 64 suffered injuries from shootings throughout Chicago.
During the week of July 5-11, Chicago’s murder rate had risen by 48% between 2019-21 year-to-date and only decreased by 1% from the previous year, police data stated.