Trio Robs 2 Boystown Victims In 12 Minutes, Arrest Made

UPDATE: As of August 25, no charges have been brought in the robberies.
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The thick, soupy weather is drawing out the street urchins who ruined our neighborhood over the past three years. Fortunately, like several recent offenders, this morning’s criminals wound up in jail.

Two victims were strong arm robbed by a band of three robbers along Belmont Avenue early this morning in Boystown.

The first victim was strong arm robbed just east of Broadway on Belmont at 1:06AM Friday. There, three attackers took the man’s black backpack, brown wallet, 15″ Macbook, and an iPhone5. All three suspects were described as black male teens, 5’6″ to 5’8″ tall. One wore a gray sweatshirt and dark jeans. They were last seen heading west toward Halsted Street.

Officers were on-scene with that victim at 1:18AM when a second robbery call came out from just two blocks away at Belmont and Halsted. That victim reported three young black men threatened him and tried to take his things, but he managed to fight off the offenders after losing only his headphones.

Police caught up with at least one suspect near the Walgreens at Clark and Barry. Both victims were taken there and a positive identification was made. At least one offender is in custody and charges are pending this morning.

The first robbery is CPD case HX397462. The second case number is TBD.

“Good Neighbor” Policy

Police were called to the address of the Broadway Youth Center at 1:30PM Thursday after receiving a call of 10 people fighting in the street. When officers arrived, they were told that “whatever this is” was taking place inside the church. Officers left without investigating the matter because, they said, a Broadway Youth Center representative told them to “get a warrant if I want to go in.”

No report? No crime.

Michelle Wetzel, General Counsel of BYC’s parent organization, told us in an email, “there was an altercation between two young people. Our staff separated them keeping one inside and took one outside in order to de-escalate the situation.  The young person outside was a bit loud and someone called the police.  By the time the police arrived the situation was resolved by staff and there was no need for police support.”

Regarding the officer’s statement that a BYC representative told her to “get a warrant” if she wanted to go inside where, presumably the victim was located, Wetzel said, “I can’t speak to the conversation between the officer and staff because I don’t know what transpired. But I do know that we train our staff to always work with and cooperate with the police. We consider the police to be our partners in the community. Based on that, I am looking into this and we will retrain individual staff if necessary.”
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CWBChicago was created in 2013 by five residents of Wrigleyville and Boystown who had grown disheartened with inaccurate information that was being provided at local Community Policing (CAPS) meetings. Our coverage area has expanded since then to cover Lincoln Park, River North, The Loop, Uptown, and other North Side Areas. But our mission remains unchanged: To provide original public safety reporting with better context and greater detail than mainstream media outlets. Our editorial email address is news@cwbchicago.com