A man from Chicago has been charged with taking part in a violent armed robbery last month on a CTA train in the Loop. And prosecutors say he was carrying a handgun when police arrested him Sunday in the Loop.
Chicago police released surveillance images of three suspects after the September 5 robbery aboard an Orange Line train near State-Van Buren, and prosecutors say Ernesto Delgado, 23, is one of them.
The 36-year-old victim was riding the L around 12:30 a.m. when the three men walked up, and Delgado asked one of his accomplices if they were ready, prosecutors said. Then, Delgado allegedly took the victim’s backpack, searched his waistband, and asked for his phone.
But the victim refused to hand over his phone, and one of the other accomplices flashed a gun. When the victim tried to get away, all three robbers punched him in the head and body and ordered him to sit down or they’d kill him, prosecutors said.
The robber who had the gun took it out again, but the third offender told him to put it away, and the trio fled at the State-Van Buren station.
Prosecutors said the crew got away with a radio and AirPods that the man used for work.
After CPD released the CTA surveillance images to the public, investigators identified Delgado as a suspect. Officers located Delgado on Sunday in the 900 block of South State. They found a loaded and defaced firearm in his waistband when they took him into custody, prosecutors said.
He is charged with robbery, unlawful use of a weapon, and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.
According to his public defender, he has been working in retail for about a month.
Judge Barbara Dawkins ordered him to pay an $8,000 deposit toward bail to go home on electronic monitoring.
The other two suspects remain at large.
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