Chicago police are investigating a string of brazen and violent daylight robberies that unfolded in Logan Square and Avondale on Monday morning. The offenders pistol-whipped victims in two robberies and fired shots while carjacking a third victim, police said.
The crimes are similar to a robbery pattern that CPD warned residents about on August 23, as well as a daylight robbery caught on video in Lakeview on Sunday.
Here’s what we’ve learned:
At around 11:30 Monday morning, four men wearing ski masks displayed a handgun with an extended magazine and ordered a man to get out of his car near the corner of Spaulding and George in Avondale. The driver accelerated from the scene and flagged down a CPD patrol car to report the incident.
He said the offenders were traveling in a black four-door sedan with tinted windows. The front passenger window was broken and replaced with a plastic garbage bag. Officers said the suspects were Black males between 16- and 20-years-old who stood 5’9″ to 5’11” tall.
About the same time, three men displayed handguns and robbed a 39-year-old man in the 2800 block of North Maplewood, police said. One of the robbers hit the victim with a gun as they took his property. The group fled in a black car.
But the victim wasn’t done.
He got into his own car, pursued the offenders, then rammed their car from behind in the 2700 block of West Diversey. The collision disabled the victim’s car, and the offenders escaped, according to CPD.
Then, at 11:34 a.m., three men approached a 23-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman in the 2800 block of North Campbell. The crew demanded the victims’ property, and two of the robbers pistol-whipped the male victim, according to a CPD spokesperson.
The spokesperson said witnesses saw the offenders go north on Campbell to rob another victim, but that victim had apparently not contacted the police.
At 11:50 a.m., a white sedan pulled up next to a 34-year-old man who was driving south in the 1900 block of North Spaulding, and two men inside the other car displayed handguns. They ordered him to get out of his car, and he complied, police said.
The gunmen got into the victim’s vehicle, fired a shot, and drove away with his car, the police spokesperson said. No one was injured by the gunfire.
On August 23, Area Five detectives warned about a robbery crew that committed a nighttime armed robbery spree in the area.
The alert said that between 10:12 p.m. and 11 p.m. that night, the crew robbed victims at gunpoint in the 2800 block of North Campbell, the 2900 block of West Grace, the 5000 block of North Kimball, and the 1900 block of West Wabansia.
Police described those robbers as two or three Black males between 16- and 20-years-old who drove a newer white four-door sedan with tinted windows.
So far, CPD has not announced any arrests in connection with the crimes.