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| Police say they discovered the three convicted robbers “hiding” near an ATM and this parking booth at 3518 Halsted. |
Three convicted robbery offenders were found “standing tightly grouped together, hiding behind an ATM and next to a valet booth in a closed parking lot” on Boystown’s Halsted Strip late on November 19th, according to officers on the 19th district’s “entertainment detail.”
The three men are all members of the Gangster Disciples street gang and two of them have been convicted of robbery twice.
“Knowing this to be a high robbery area,” cops say they approached the three for a field interview and found a black switchblade with a 4-inch knife in Jahmal Lee’s pants pocket. The Edgewater resident was arrested and has been charged with possession of a deadly weapon.
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| Lee. (Mugshots.com) |
In 1993, Lee was charged with six counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery, two counts of home invasion, two counts of armed violence, and six counts of burglary in connection with a single incident. He pleaded guilty to robbery, receiving a 7-year sentence. He received another 3 years for narcotics in 2001.
Police held the other two men for probation violation, but the state has chosen not to petition the court for revocation. We are withholding the men’s names because they were not charged with wrongdoing, but here’s a little bit about them:
#1 is a 20-year-old man. He received probation and community service for his first robbery—a 2011 mugging of a senior citizen in the 6500 block of N. Damen.
He was given a 3-year sentence for robbing another victim near Halsted and Wrightwood in June 2013. After being credited for time served and an early release, he actually spent less than 10 months in prison, getting released on October 20, 2014.
#2 is a 27-year-old man. He received 30-months probation for a 2010 strong-arm robbery on the Harrison CTA platform. Then, he received a “4-year sentence” for robbing a man at Belmont and Sheffield in January 2013. He entered prison in June of last year and was out on August 18, 2014. That’s a short 4 years, no?
Among #2’s other arrests: prostitution in the 900 block of Belmont; reckless conduct in the 3500 block of Halsted; theft in the 3000 block of Broadway; and shoplifting in the 1000 block of Belmont.
When officers asked #1 why he and the other men were huddling behind a closed valet booth near an ATM at 11 o’clock on a Wednesday night, #1 reportedly stated that he was “hanging out with his boys at a local bar.”
