Prosecutors have filed charges against a 27-year-old man from the Austin neighborhood in connection with the armed robbery and sexual assault of a woman in her West Town residential building.
Later on Tuesday, investigators released surveillance images of a suspect who tried to use the victim’s debit card at a convenience store near the crime scene. Then, police arrested Melvin Meeky at his home in the 5500 block of West Iowa on Thursday.
Around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, an armed man followed a woman into her building on the 400 block of North Carpenter, according to police.
The victim, 22, said the man displayed a knife and said, “give me everything.” He then forced the woman into a stairwell and demanded that she perform a sex act on him, according to details in a police report.
Cops secured images of the man preparing to use the victim’s debit card at a 7-Eleven store outside the Grand Blue Line minutes later. Shortly after the attack, pings from the victim’s stolen phone were detected heading southbound near the Thompson Center, suggesting that the offender may have boarded a Blue Line train.
The victim told police that she would seek treatment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on her own.
Meeky is due in bond court on Sunday afternoon.
