Chicago — Three Chicago men face felony charges after they allegedly tried to rob a woman on the Blue Line and then battered and tried to rob another passenger who intervened.
Aaron Donson, 22, Richard Butler-Henderson, 28, and 19-year-old Jaylin Hollingsworth are each charged with two counts of attempted robbery and one count of aggravated battery of a transit passenger.
Officials said a 50-year-old woman was riding the train with a suitcase and other items when the men took one of her bags away as the train neared the Belmont station, 3355 West Belmont, at 3:16 a.m. Monday.
The woman struggled with the men, and two of them held her back while the third opened her suitcase, prosecutor Paul Sloan said.
At that point, a 30-year-old man on the train told the trio to leave the woman alone. Sloan alleged that the group turned its attention to the good Samaritan and asked him what he had in his pockets.
Donson lunged at the man, who took a swing at Donson but missed. Hollingsworth and Donson then began to punch the man as Butler-Henderson raised a glass bottle over his shoulders, Sloan said.
Meanwhile, the woman alerted the train operator from another car, then returned and pulled out a knife to make the three men leave the train. Chicago police arrested all three men several blocks from the Belmont station. Sloan said they were wearing the same clothing that the robbers were seen wearing on CTA surveillance video.
Judge Maryam Ahmad ordered Butler-Henderson to pay $10,000 toward bail to be released on electronic monitoring. She set the same bail amount for Hollingsworth, who has a misdemeanor battery case pending. Donson must pay $8,000 to be released on an ankle monitor, the judge said.
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