Police search for gun-wielding men after second carjacking outside Caseyville motel

Police were searching for two armed men Wednesday after they carjacked a woman Tuesday night in the parking lot of a Caseyville motel — the second carjacking at that location in three days, police said.

The woman told police she was in a parking spot at the Motel 6 on Old Country Inn Drive around 11:20 p.m. when two men pulled up behind her in a dark-colored sedan — which she described as a Nissan Sentra — according to Caseyville Police Chief Tom Coppotelli.

As she was stuck in the parking spot, Coppotelli said, one of the masked men approached her car with what she thought was a machine gun. He told her to exit the car or he would kill her.

“With her description, we are thinking it was some type of smaller assault rifle,” the chief said. “Something bigger than a pistol, smaller than full-size.”

She complied and the man drove off in her black 2016 Kia Soul with Illinois plates.

Coppotelli said a similar carjacking occurred at the same Motel 6 on Sunday night. The victim of that incident reported to police that two men stole a black Nissan Sentra around 4:35 p.m. in the Motel 6 parking lot.

The chief said officers feel the carjackings may be related, but have not confirmed that suspicion.

“It is something we are looking at, this is a rare thing to happen at that hotel,” Coppotelli said. “It’s a fairly decent hotel, we don’t really have any calls there. We are surprised about a quick rash like this.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 6:28 AM with the headline "Police search for gun-wielding men after second carjacking outside Caseyville motel."