A 29-year-old man worked with three juveniles, including a 13-year-old, to rob two women at gunpoint on the Roosevelt Red Line station Sunday afternoon, prosecutors said Tuesday. Police allegedly recovered two guns after tracking the crew down less than an hour later.
Darrell Wyatt, charged with armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, was ordered held without bail by Judge David Navarro.
The victims, a 31-year-old woman from Kazakhstan in Chicago to get her medical license and her roommate, were sitting on a bench on the train platform when the robbers moved in from behind around 5:30 p.m., according to prosecutor Brian Burkhardt and a CPD spokesperson.
Wyatt approached the victims from the side and pointed a gun at the medical student’s chest while the juveniles surrounded the women, Burkhardt said.
Wyatt ordered the women to empty their pockets, then took a phone from one woman’s pocket and her Christian Dior handbag, according to Burkhardt. One of the juveniles went through the other woman’s pockets, but she didn’t have anything to take, he said.
All four robbers boarded a southbound train. Burkhardt said CTA surveillance cameras recorded the robbery “start to finish.”
Police tracked the group to the 47th Street station and eventually found them running into a back yard and up the rear porch of a home, Burkhardt said. But they couldn’t get into the home, and police arrested the foursome, all of whom were wearing the same clothing that the robbers were seen wearing on CTA video, according to Burkhardt.
In addition to Wyatt, a 13-year-old boy, a 16-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl were taken into custody, a police spokesperson said.
At the arrest scene, cops allegedly found one handgun lying inside an open Igloo cooler and another handgun in the yard. Police also recovered the stolen phone and Christian Dior purse, Burkhardt said.
Wyatt has been sentenced to prison twice: five years for residential burglary in 2009 and six years for possession of a stolen motor vehicle in 2012.