CHICAGO — Two women who received ordinance violations after a robbery attempt at the Roosevelt Red Line station last month are back in custody, accused of beating and robbing a 16-year-old girl on the train line last week.
Judge David Kelly ordered Brianna Owens, 18, and Angel Bruce, 23, to pay $10,000 bail deposits to go home on electronic monitoring during a bond hearing Friday afternoon. Both women are mothers of young children, their defense attorney said.
On March 15, Bruce and Owens were among five people Chicago police arrested after officers saw a robbery attempt unfolding at the Roosevelt station, 1167 South State Street, around 3 a.m., according to CPD records. But they were released less than 12 hours later with nothing more than a city citation for having weapons on the CTA. It’s not clear what the weapons were, but Chicago police said in a media statement at the time that one suspect discharged pepper spray during the incident.
Three weeks later, around 8:13 p.m. on April 7, Bruce and Owens were part of a group that attacked and robbed a 16-year-old girl on a Red Line train near 87th Street, prosecutors said Friday.
The girl, who did not know any of the people involved, was seated when Bruce pulled her to the train floor by her hair, prosecutors said. Bruce, Owen, and a juvenile repeatedly punched and kicked the girl while she was down, and the juvenile took her phone, according to the allegations. Prosecutors said Owens took the girl’s purse, and a second juvenile stole her wig, which came off during the attack.
All four assailants fled the train with six other people who did not participate in the attack, according to officials. The girl suffered bruising to her face and body.
Chicago police released CTA surveillance images of three suspects in the attack on April 10. Detectives were able to identify them through news coverage and because another police officer who had previous contact with Owens and Bruce recognized them from the photos, according to prosecutors. That officer arrested them after they appeared in court together on Thursday.
Neither Bruce nor Owens has any criminal convictions in their background.
Owens, the mother of one, is a high school graduate who works as a supermarket cashier, her attorney said. Bruce has three children and is unemployed.
They are each charged with felony counts of robbery and aggravated battery in a public place.