Two men and two juveniles are charged with trying to rob an off-duty Chicago police sergeant just steps from the 19th District police station in Lakeview. One of the accused adults, a long time menace in the Boystown area, is on parole for robbery and for stealing the wallet of a dying man at the Loyola Red Line station.
Derrick Robie, 22, Dhamarquis Lee, 19, a 16-year-old boy, and a 17-year-old boy are each charged with felony attempted robbery while indicating they had a firearm, a police spokesperson said early Thursday.
Robie led the crew and ordered the 40-year-old sergeant to get down on the ground on the 900 block of West Addison around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, prosecutors said. But the robbery failed and all four offenders ran when the sergeant pulled out a handgun and announced that he is a police officer, according to a CPD spokesperson. The robbery unfolded about 100 yards from the 19th District police station at 850 West Addison.
Officers located the four alleged robbers about 30 minutes later on the 900 block of West Fletcher. A fifth offender got away.
Robie and Lee both admitted to being involved in the incident, prosecutors said.
Judge David Navarro set bail for Lee at $50,000. The Illinois Department of Corrections issued a hold for Robie, which means he will be held without bail while the state considers revoking his parole. Navarro set Robie’s bail in the new robbery case at $100,000.
CWBChicago has filed several stories about Robie over the years.
In January 2018, he was charged with robbing a man at the Morse Red Line station. Even though Robie was charged with Class X felony armed robbery, Cook County Judge Stephanie Miller released him on his own recognizance with electronic monitoring.
A few days later, detectives arrested Robie after they determined that he stole a wallet from a man’s pants pocket while the victim lay dying at the Loyola Red Line station earlier in the month. The victim was alone when he fell down the station’s staircase, lost consciousness, and later died, police said at the time. CTA video captured images of Robie and another man rifling through the dying man’s pockets, stealing his wallet, and leaving him without summoning help.
Robie eventually received two concurrent three-year sentences for the crimes. After receiving the state’s standard 50% sentence reduction for good behavior and credit for time served before sentencing, Robie only spent 16 days in prison before he was paroled on November 20, according to state records.