Update 3:12 p..m. — Police have now issued a community alert about the robberies in which detectives described the suspects as four Black males between 16- and 25-years-old who wore black hoodies and stood 5’6″ to 6-feet tall. Anyone with information about the crimes can contact Area Three detectives at 312-744-8263 about crime pattern P21-3-092.
Armed men swept across Lakeview early Saturday, leaving nine robbery victims and a separate carjacking victim in their wake, according to Chicago police. Start-to-finish, the crime wave lasted about 30 minutes.
It all started around 3:45 a.m. when, a man was robbed by two armed offenders near his home on the 1500 block of West Cornelia, a CPD report said. The offenders pressed a gun to the man’s body, took his wallet, phone, and keys, then fled westbound in a dark sedan, according to the victim.
The carjacking came next around 3:50 a.m., according to Officer Jose Lemus-Cortez. A 51-year-old man was sitting in his red Honda Civic on the 3900 block of North Clark when three men battered him and dragged him from the car, a CPD report said. They then drove south on Clark with the man’s vehicle. An ambulance took the victim to Thorek Hospital for treatment of a head wound. Around 4:30 a.m., police pinged the stolen car to the Austin neighborhood, according to the report. Police did not release descriptions of the offenders.
Then, at 3:57 a.m., three offenders confronted two 23-year-old men who were walking on the 1200 block of West Addison, Lemus-Cortez said. The robbers held the men at gunpoint and removed the victims’ property from their pockets before fleeing in a waiting vehicle that fled the scene, according to Lemus-Cortez. Phones taken from those victims later pinged near the 3400 block of North Southport and near the 3000 block of North Mildred.
Next, three men were robbed at gunpoint as they walked on the 3100 block of North Halsted around 4:15 a.m. Police said a sedan pulled up next to the victims, and two men got out of the car to rob them at gunpoint. The victims, ages 25 and 26, surrendered their valuables to the men who fled in a car bearing orange license plates that end with the letters “DL.”
Finally, four men — two age 32, another 42, and the third 45 — were robbed at gunpoint as they walked on the 600 block of West Belmont at 4:22 a.m., Lemus-Cortez said. The victims said a car pulled up on the street, and two men got out displaying handguns. The offenders took the victims’ property and also fled in a car bearing orange license plates that end with the letters “DL,” according to a CPD report.
Saturday’s robbery spree is similar to the wave of armed hold-ups that swept across River North, Old Town, and the Near North Side on July 30. Police said a group of armed men traveling in a car robbed 14 people during eight separate incidents in about 45 minutes that night. An hour-long spree involving five robberies hit the same downtown areas on July 27.
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