Chicago police are investigating at least five armed robberies that unfolded in Lakeview and Lincoln Park on Thursday night and early Friday, including one in which an offender shot the victim three times at close range. That confrontation was captured on video.
Some of the robberies have been linked to two additional hold-ups that were reported in the same area on Wednesday evening. Police have not announced any arrests.
Here are the details:
Between 10:30 and 10:45 Wednesday night, three men stepped out of a silver four-door sedan on the 2900 block of North Clark and confronted two men, ages 23 and 33, who were walking nearby. Two of the offenders displayed guns while the third took items from the victims’ pockets, including a set of car keys, said Kellie Bartoli, a CPD spokesperson.
The younger victim reported that the crew also stole his white BMW sedan, which was parked on the 2900 block of North Halsted. Investigators have linked the stolen BMW to some of the later robberies, according to a source.
At around the same time, a 30-year-old man reported that three masked men confronted him at gunpoint after they emerged from a car on the 2600 block of North Bosworth, Bartoli said. The group demanded the man’s property. When he refused, one of them hit him in the head with a pistol, according to Bartoli. They fled when he refused to cooperate a second time.
Officers who spoke with the victims described the robbers as three Black males who stand 5’6″ to 5’9″ tall. All wore masks, one of which was orange. A tail car may have accompanied them.
There were two more robberies at about the same time on Thursday evening, Bartoli said.
A 22-year-old woman told police she was walking on the 3000 block of North Racine when a man wearing a yellow hoodie and surgical mask approached her from behind around 10 p.m., according to Bartoli.
He displayed a gun, took her property, and fled west on Barry Avenue in a white sedan that was waiting with two other people inside, Bartoli said. Police have determined that the getaway car is the white 2018 BMW robbers took the night before, a source said.
Officers who spoke with the woman radioed that she knew someone else had been robbed at the same time, but she did not know where that victim went.
Moments later, a 23-year-old man called 911. He told police that a man confronted him at gunpoint as he walked on the 2600 block of North Racine around 10:26 p.m. The robber took his property and escaped in a waiting sedan that appeared gold in color, Bartoli said. It was last seen heading north on Racine.
Police responded to another armed robbery at 12:30 a.m. Friday in Boystown.
A 30-year-old man told them he was walking east on the 700 block of West Aldine when two masked men stepped out of a black sedan and demanded his property at gunpoint. One of the offenders punched him in the face when he started screaming, Bartoli said. He ran away, and the offenders escaped without getting anything.
At 4 a.m., a 29-year-old man was robbed across from Wrigley Field on the 1100 block of West Waveland.
Bartoli said a woman got out of a gray SUV and tried to take the man’s phone. They struggled until a black SUV pulled up and an accomplice stepped out of it while point a gun at the victim. The woman then took the man’s phone and wallet and both SUVs headed south on Clark Street, Bartoli continued.
But the most violent robbery unfolded at 3:05 a.m. on the corner of Wayne and Webster in Lincoln Park. There, an armed robber ambushed a man who was walking down the street, then shot him three times at close range.
It was captured on video with sound. You can watch and hear what happened here, but please know the video is very disturbing:
The video shows a white car pulling around a corner and one man emerging from its passenger side. He takes up a post next to a building and peeks around the corner as the victim walks into his trap.
Suddenly, the gunman steps out and levels a pistol at the victim. He takes the man’s bag and tosses it to the ground. Then, he demands the victim’s phone. The victim appears to make a move for the robber’s gun and they stumble to the corner and fall to the pavement.
An accomplice steps out of the car with a gun and approaches the men. Then, the first robber climbs off the man and shoots him in the back. As the victim falls to the pavement in pain, the gunman fires another round into the man’s back.
He picks the victim’s phone off the pavement and, while the man moans in pain, orders him to recite the device’s PIN. He types it into the phone, then shoots the man in his head before returning to the car.
Police said the victim is in his 20s. EMS took him to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition.