Victim Applauds Police in Armed Robbery Arrest

A Lincoln Square woman says she's thankful for quick police work that led to the early Sunday arrest of a trio of men who reportedly robbed her, her male cab driver, and a third victim in a separate incident.

The woman and the cab driver were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning in a crime police are chalking up to gang members, according to police reports. The subsequent robbery—police say the same three are to blame—occurred shortly thereafter in a nearby area. 

Officers from the 19^th and 17^th Chicago Police Department districts collaborated to detain the suspects, who have reportedly confessed to the crimes. None of the victims were injured, according to police.

The first incident occurred around 4:30 a.m., when the female victim was approached while getting out of a taxi near her Lincoln Square home in the 2400 block of Wilson Avenue. As she stood up to leave, she found a gun in her face, she told Patch Tuesday. A man demanded her purse, which she gave without hesitation.

Another man simultaneously approached the taxi and demanded that the cab driver give him money. After the robbery, the two suspects took off in a vehicle driven by a third man, police from the 19^th District said.

“I was a wreck and the police that responded were amazing,” the female victim said. “I was extremely upset and they got there fast.”

The woman, whose identity has been verified, requested that her name be withheld due to the suspected gang involvement in the crime.

The three suspects were members of "La Familia Stone," according to a police report. Two of them were technically minors, ages 16 and 17 years old, and the other was 18. However in Illinois, those who are 17 years old and older are tried as adults.

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Following the first crime, the trio reportedly drove to the 3500 block of West Sunnyside Avenue, where they parked and on foot followed a man near a grocery store. Two suspects asked the victim if he could spare $2 for a drink, and then robbed him at gunpoint for his wallet, cell phone and car keys, according to a police report.

After threatening his life, they stole his car. Two suspects ran from the scene in the stolen car, while the third followed in a Chevrolet Impala.

The victim waved down police from the 17^th District, who arrived to find the two cars leaving the scene and heading east on Sunnyside. Officers pursued the drivers down Sunnyside and then south on St. Louis Avenue, they said.

Both cars were speeding, and police lost sight of the Impala, but followed the stolen car until it crashed into a concrete steel guard around the 3400 block of West Montrose Avenue. Two suspects left that vehicle and started running on Kimball Avenue. Police chased them and managed to arrest one.

That man confessed to his role in both robberies and relinquished the name of his accomplices, police said.

Officers from the 17^th District arrested another one of the suspects at Addison and Whipple streets after his description had been broadcast to police in the area. They found the third man in the 3200 block of West Warner Avenue.

The three reportedly confessed to the robberies and said they originally thought the male victim was in a rival gang. He and cab driver positively identified the suspects, police said.

Police found one of the victims' cell phones and a .45-caliber Blue Steel revolver in the stolen car, according to the report. The woman’s purse had been tossed out of the vehicle.

The three suspects were charged with one count each of armed robbery with a firearm and vehicular hijacking with a firearm. One was separately accused of reckless driving and another, unlawful possession of a handgun.

Sgt. Jason Clark said the first robbery was uncommon for the area of Wilson near Western Avenue. In November, robberies in that beat—1911—were down 75 percent from Nov. 2011, and crime in general was had decreased by 17 percent, he said.

“For this robbery to happen where it happened is an anomaly,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of robberies in that area.”

Still, residents can get involved and stay vigilant, the female victim encouraged.

“I really want to make sure people realize (crime) is happening in Lincoln Square,” she said. “I hope people get proactive and go to CAPS meetings.”