CHICAGO — Jorge Gonzales has only lived in Chicago for five months, but he’s really getting into the swing of things. Yesterday, prosecutors charged him with committing an armed carjacking and four armed robberies in less than an hour on Monday morning.
Gonzales and a man who remains at large rode bikes from one robbery to another in the Loop, with the accomplice displaying a silver revolver each time, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Victor Aberdeen.
They allegedly started by taking about $60 from a 27-year-old man in the 600 block of South State Street around 5:17 a.m.
Just a couple of minutes later, the accomplice fell off his bike in the 600 block of South Plymouth Court, and a 52-year-old woman came over to ask if he was OK. They robbed her, Aberdeen said. With the accomplice aiming his revolver at her, the woman replied that she didn’t have anything and then ran away.
The third robbery fizzled, too. Aberdeen said Gonzales and the accomplice pedaled up to a 36-year-old man near Madison and Michigan around 5:35 a.m. Once again, the accomplice pointed a gun at the victim and demanded his money. But the victim didn’t have anything, and he turned his pockets inside out to prove it, Aberdeen said.
A little before 6 a.m., the duo saw a 31-year-old man walking his dog in the 1100 block of South Michigan. They stopped, and the accomplice pulled out his revolver, demanding the man’s property and threatening to kill him and his dog, Aberdeen alleged.
Gonzales and his partner ordered the man to take them to his car, but he told them it was locked behind a gate in the garage. So Gonzales took the victim’s gold chain and biked away with the gunman, Aberdeen said.
Possibly sick of bicycling, the pair rolled up on a 22-year-old man sitting in a car in an alley behind the 1100 block of South Wabash. They knocked on the man’s window, and the accomplice ordered him out of the vehicle at gunpoint, said Aberdeen. With Gonzales allegedly behind the wheel, they drove off with the man’s gray Honda.
Chicago police officers spotted the car around 11:30 a.m. near Chicago Avenue and the Kennedy Expressway. Gonzales was behind the wheel when they pulled it over, Aberdeen alleged. No one else was in the car, but Gonzales had the fourth victim’s gold chain, and he was wearing the same clothes that one of the robbers was seen wearing on surveillance videos, according to Aberdeen.
Gonzales’ defense attorney during Tuesday’s bail hearing said he is a native of Colombia who has lived here with his family for about five months.
Judge William Fahy set bail at $250,000. Gonzales can go home on electronic monitoring by posting 10% of the bail amount.
He is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, two counts of armed robbery with a firearm, and two counts of attempted armed robbery with a firearm.