At least 13 people were robbed at gunpoint and at least one was beaten during two waves of hold-ups across the North Side on Friday evening into early Saturday. No arrests have been made in any of the crimes, which are an extension of a five-week-long robbery surge that has claimed more than 50 victims across the area.
The more recent wave of crimes began at 11:45 p.m. Friday on the 800 block of West Barry in Lakeview. A group of five men and three women between the ages of 25 and 30 were walking when a dark-colored sedan pulled to a stop alongside them, according to Chicago police.
Three gunmen stepped out of the car and demanded the victims’ purses, wallets and phones, police said. The victims complied, and the offenders fled in the vehicle, which a fourth person drove.
Police also received a call from another man who reported being robbed in the same location around the same time, but it was not immediately clear if he was with the group or if he was targeted separately.
About five minutes later, a 34-year-old woman was pistol-whipped and robbed by three armed men who exited a blue sedan on the 600 block of West Melrose in Boystown, according to a CPD report.
The offenders took the victim’s purse and wallet from her hands and fled in the sedan.
EMS took the woman to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition with bruising to her head.
Then, around 12:10 a.m. Saturday, two armed men exited a blue sedan to rob a 28-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman who were walking on the 1700 block of West Wrightwood in Lincoln Park, police said. The robbers demanded the victims’ phones and wallets, then fled in the car with at least one accomplice.
Some victims described the offenders as Black men who stand 5’8″ to 6-feet tall wearing masks. The blue sedan is a Honda Civic that was stolen on Wednesday, a CPD report said.
Earlier Friday evening, two men were robbed in separate hold-ups in North Center and Lakeview.
At 9:10 p.m., a gunpoint pointed a pistol to a man’s face and took his wallet near the intersection of Damen and Hutchinson, according to initial information from a CPD report.
The offender, described as a Black male in his early 30s who stands about 5’10” tall and has medium dreads, escaped in a dark-colored four-door vehicle, according to the report. The suspect wore a black sweater or hoodie under a tan jacket.
Then, at 10:50 p.m., a similarly-described suspect robbed a man at gunpoint on the 3100 block of North Ravenswood.
Robberies day after day
Lakeview has been slammed by a wave of robberies, often in the form of nightly sprees, since early November. Those crimes have sometimes spilled over into nearby neighborhoods. Among the more recent crimes:
- An Amazon delivery driver was robbed and hijacked of his van on the 3700 block of North Marshfield on Thursday. A group of armed men confronted another Amazon delivery person as she made a delivery in Boystown on Wednesday.
- Armed men pistol-whipped a woman in front of her husband and then robbed the couple, who were walking on the 1800 block of North Dayton in Lincoln Park on Wednesday evening.
- On Tuesday evening, carjackers scored two cars in a single incident outside Wrigley Field.
- Two men mugged a woman and fired a gunshot during a brazen daylight mugging that was caught on video in the 4000 block of North Broadway on Monday.
- A 32-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint Monday evening on the 3600 block of North Marshfield. About an hour later, a 45-year-old man was robbed of his Canada Goose coat and other valuables at gunpoint as he walked on the 2200 block of North Clark.