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| Approximate locations of Monday evening’s robberies across Lincoln Square and Uptown | BatchGeo |
An incredible streak of six armed robberies—including five within a half-hour—swept across Lincoln Square and Uptown Monday evening. In one robbery, a gunman opened fire, barely missing his victim, police said. No one is in custody.
The first robbery attempt was reported around 7:30 p.m. in the 4500 block of North Campbell in Lincoln Square. A resident was in his garage when two men entered from the alley, implied that they had a handgun, and demanded his valuables. The offenders searched the man’s pockets, found nothing of value, and fled, police said. Both robbers—described only as black men—were last seen heading southbound in the east alley of Campbell.
About two hours later, a string of five robberies was reported within 30 minutes along Leland Avenue.
• 9:40 p.m. at Leland and Wolcott: A man reports that three offenders in hoodies pulled out a handgun and tried to rob him. The robbery fails, and the assailants run eastbound. No report is filed.
• 9:45 p.m. at Leland and Paulina: A man is approached by three offenders who display a handgun and then take his phone and a blue Chicago Fire jacket. He describes the men as black and 23-30 years old: The gunman took his coat; the second was tall with a face mask, and the third wore a dark hoodie. The district did not have enough police to handle all of the incoming calls at the time and officers lost track of the victim after securing initial details. No report was immediately filed.
• 9:50 p.m. at Leland and Winthrop: A man was shot at during a robbery that patrol officers reported seeing first-hand. Once again, three offenders—one with a bandana on the lower half of his face—approached the man, pulled out a gun, and demanded his property. For some reason, the gunman fired a shot at the victim before all three offenders ran away and jumped into a black sedan. Cops later recover a shell casing at the scene.
• 10:03 p.m. at Leland and Winchester: A Lincoln Square man is approached by three men in hoodies who produce a handgun and take his phone and wallet. All of the offenders wore hoodies, and the gunman had white lettering on his chest. The three are described as short black males between 15-20 years old.
• 10:05 p.m. at Damen and Giddings: Once again, a man reports that three men armed with a handgun took his phone on the street. The offenders—described as two possibly black men and a third of unknown race who was wearing a red bandana over his face—are last seen running southbound on Damen. All are very thin and may be in their teens, the victim says.
