Two grade school-aged boys armed with baseball bats robbed a man in Lakeview on Sunday afternoon. They then battered a CPD sergeant who tried to take them into custody at the Belmont Red Line station minutes later, according to Chicago police.
Both juveniles, ages 12 and 13, are facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges.
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A 25-year-old man told police that the boys approached him around 4:40 p.m. as he looked at his phone on the 800 block of West Belmont outside a Target store. The boys took the man’s phone, and one of them tried to strike the victim with a bat before both juveniles ran away toward the nearby CTA train station.
After a witness called 911, officers who monitor the Town Hall Police District’s surveillance camera system spotted the offenders standing on the southbound train platform. CTA briefly halted inbound service at the station to keep the boys from escaping by train.
The boys then resisted arrest and battered a police sergeant who tried to take them into custody on the platform, police said. The sergeant declared a “10-1” police emergency to draw immediate help to the scene.
Both boys threw their bats from the platform and fled from the scene. Back-up officers captured both of them after brief foot chases, according to a CPD spokesperson.
Prosecutors charged each juvenile with felony armed robbery and felony aggravated battery of a police officer as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting police and unlawful use of a weapon.
Authorities are unable to release further information about the boys because the juveniles are shielded by law.