CHICAGO — A 17-year-old boy has been charged with robbing a man at gunpoint near Daley Plaza last week, Chicago police said.
A 34-year-old man was walking on Washington Street near the plaza when three robbers on Divvy bikes rode up to him around 1:45 a.m. Friday, police said.
One of the robbers displayed a gun and ordered the victim to hand over his valuables. He complied and was not injured.
Chicago police officers arrested the 17-year-old on Sunday in the 7800 block of South Michigan. CPD did not say how they identified him as one of the robbers. He’s charged with armed robbery with a firearm.
About a half-hour before that robbery, another man was robbed by a group of bike riders near State and Randolph.
Crime pattern
Police issued a community alert on Saturday linking those two robberies with 13 similar hold-ups reported in the Loop since June 19. The robbers traveled on Divvy bikes most of the time, according to the alert.
In addition to Friday’s robberies, additional cases were reported on:
June 19
100 block of South State at 2:30 a.m.
June 26
600 block of South Plymouth at 5:20 a.m
600 block of South State at 5:30 a.m
first block of South Michigan at 5:35 a.m
1100 block of South Michigan at 5:50 a.m
1100 block of South Michigan at 6:00 a.m
1100 block of South Wabash at 6:50 a.m a.m
Police said two to four offenders commit each robbery. They said the group consists of Black and Hispanic males between 15 and 25 years old who wear dark hoodies and ski masks.
Prosecutors have charged a man in connection with the June 25 crimes.
Charges filed
Jorge Gonzales, 23, 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, Assistant State’s Attorney Victor Aberdeen said during Gonzales’ bail hearing on June 27.
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.
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