Police are investigating an armed robbery and an attempted armed robbery that occurred just a few minutes apart in Lincoln Park and nearby Lakeview on Thursday evening. No arrests have been made.
First, a 33-year-old man told police that he was approached by two men who displayed a handgun as he walked in the 1000 block of West Altgeld around 9:12 p.m., said CPD spokesperson Kellie Bartoli. The offenders tried to grab the man when he began running away, Bartoli said. But, the victim managed to escape, and the offenders fled the scene.
Private surveillance video showed the men get out of a black four-door SUV before the hold-up. The gunman was a younger Black male who wore a black hoodie.
According to preliminary information, less than ten minutes later, two men robbed a victim at gunpoint near Sheffield and Wellington in Lakeview. Bartoli said the police report for the incident was not yet complete.
However, officers at the scene said two men fled westbound on Wellington after robbing the victim around 9:20 p.m.
Both incidents took place in the Town Hall Police District, which has experienced a sharp rise in robberies since early October.
Over the four-week period ending November 15, robberies were up 147% year-over-year in Town Hall, with 37 cases reported compared to 15 during the same time last year. So far in 2020, robberies are up 17% in the district. Nonetheless, full-year robbery cases are off sharply from record-high levels seen in 2012 and 2013.
