Chicago — Four people, including two juveniles, arrested on the Magnificent Mile last night may be responsible for a series of robberies, including three at Rivers Casino earlier this month, according to a law enforcement source.
With the help of a CPD helicopter, Chicago police and other law enforcement agencies followed a white Jeep Compass that was involved in a robbery in Park Ridge on Sunday night.
Chicago police and officers from other agencies eventually stopped the Jeep in the 700 block of North Michigan around 10:20 p.m., and they arrested four people who allegedly ran from it, according to police.
The Jeep was used in an armed robbery about 20 minutes earlier in the parking lot of Mariano’s, 1900 South Cumberland Avenue, in Park Ridge, according to a law enforcement source. Two masked men displayed guns and robbed the victim before escaping in the SUV, Arlington Cardinal reported.
Investigators also learned that the Jeep was used in a robbery outside Rivers Casino a few minutes before the Mariano’s holdup, officials said.
Chicago police recovered at least one handgun from the Jeep. Two phones, possibly ditched by the suspects, were found in Lake Shore Park after the foot pursuits ended.
On March 10, Des Plaines police said armed men robbed four people in three separate holdups in the Rivers Casino parking lot just before 8 p.m. Two of the victims were pistol-whipped during the crimes.
Ten minutes later, the same group robbed another victim on the same Mariano’s parking lot where last night’s holdup occurred, officials said.
About 30 minutes after the March 10 robberies ended in the suburbs, eight men were robbed during two holdups in the West Loop by a group of armed men who escaped in a red SUV similar to the one used in the Des Plaines and Park Ridge crimes. A law enforcement source told CWB Chicago at the time that police were exploring links between the city and suburban crimes.
As of midday Monday, a Chicago police spokesperson said charges against the four people that police arrested are still pending.