A 20-year-old Chicago woman is facing a felony charge after police say she tried to carjack a vehicle with a disabled 63-year-old woman sitting inside, only to be tackled and pinned down by the woman's own son until officers arrived. The confrontation unfolded just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of the Jewel-Osco at 95th Street and Roberts Road in Hickory Hills.
According to Patch, the 63-year-old woman was sitting in the front passenger seat of her minivan when the suspect, identified as Julianna A. Al Maghrabi, got into the driver's seat. Police said Al Maghrabi threatened to shoot the woman if she did not get out, and reporting from Southwest Regional Publishing adds that she pushed the woman while trying to force her out of the vehicle.
The woman's son had been inside the grocery store at the time, per the same reporting. He ran out, pulled Al Maghrabi from the driver's seat and held her on the ground until Hickory Hills police arrived. Police later determined she was unarmed, with no gun recovered at the scene, and credited the son's quick action with protecting his mother and enabling her immediate arrest.
Investigation and Charges Filed
Hickory Hills police officers were called to the scene at 9:24 p.m., according to Southwest Regional Publishing's account of the department's timeline. Investigators interviewed witnesses and Al Maghrabi herself, and reviewed surveillance and body-worn camera video as part of the investigation. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the case and approved one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking against Al Maghrabi.
Al Maghrabi appeared Thursday before Cook County Judge Linzey Jones on the felony charge, the station notes. She was placed on electronic home monitoring with limited movement, and the judge also ordered a mental health evaluation, monthly pretrial check-ins and random drug testing. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 10 in Bridgeview.
Police also said officers had responded to reports of attempted kidnappings in the same shopping center, but those reports were not found to be related to the carjacking, per Southwest Regional Publishing. Officers added that there is no known ongoing threat to the community.
A Pattern of Parking Lot Carjackings
The Hickory Hills case echoes an earlier incident at another Jewel-Osco in the southwest suburbs. In that case, a man and a woman were carjacked at gunpoint in a Jewel-Osco parking lot in Orland Park, as reported by NBC Chicago. Orland Park police said the two victims were sitting in a car near the 17600 block of Lincoln Avenue at about 1:48 a.m. when another vehicle pulled up behind them and two men got out.
NBC Chicago reported that the suspects, allegedly armed with handguns and wearing covered faces, demanded the victims get out before taking a wallet and purse and driving off with the car. That stolen vehicle was later recovered in Hazel Crest. Officials said at the time it was unknown whether the Orland Park carjacking was connected to separately reported carjackings in Dolton and Homewood.
Statewide, a low-confidence figure cited in an Illinois General Assembly report put the number of reported vehicle hijackings and carjackings at 481 for 2025, though that number has not been independently verified against the underlying data. For now, the Hickory Hills case remains an isolated local matter moving through Cook County's court system, with Al Maghrabi due back before Judge Jones next month in Bridgeview.
