‘I did not take the car,’ says boy, 13, accused of carjacking food delivery car with children inside

Shortly after ordering McDonald’s fries, barbecue sauce and a drink, 13-year-old Martellius Moore found himself under arrest on the city’s West Side after police said he carjacked his food delivery driver’s car while two small children were in it.

Moore was charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking and aggravated battery using a deadly weapon, police said.

“I did not take the car,” said Moore in a telephone interview hours after his first juvenile court appearance on the charges, during which a judge ordered him under house arrest with an ankle monitor. “There’s a camera to prove it.”

The children — a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — suffered minor injuries to their arms, but nobody else was hurt during the attack, which began about 5:30 p.m. in the 600 block of North Christiana Avenue and ended in the 700 block of North Spaulding Avenue in the city’s East Garfield Park neighborhood, Chicago police said.

“She parked, she came across the street and gave me the food; I gave her the code,” said Moore.

As she handed him his order, Moore spotted a bearded man about 25 years old “pulling up on her car” and then getting into it as Moore, on his porch, watched and then warned the woman.

The 26-year-old woman spun around and screamed “My babies!” and ran into the street and jumped onto the hood of a Nissan Altima, Moore said.

After the woman was hit, Moore said he walked into the street to see what was going on and police arrested him about 10 minutes later, after the woman allegedly identified him.

According to Chicago police, Moore was the one who jumped into the car after she stepped out of it, and then plowed into her. He continued southbound before leaping out of the car, which continued moving before hitting a fence. Moore then allegedly ran away on foot and was taken into custody a few blocks away, police said.

The children were still in the back seats, police said.

Until his next court date, which is in August, Moore must wear an ankle monitor or “bracelet,” said Carol Reynolds, Moore’s grandmother, who added that he will have to be wearing it on his first day of eighth grade. She worries what his classmates will think.

“He’s innocent,” Reynolds said. “We just want the truth to be told.”

rsobol@chicagotribune.com