CHICAGO — Surveillance video captured a brazen daylight mugging near the University of Illinois-Chicago campus on Friday afternoon, and the same offender is suspected of robbing another victim a few minutes later on the West Side.
The robbery footage was recorded in the 1200 block of West Flournoy just after 4 p.m. It begins with a woman passing the mouth of an alley as she walks toward the school’s campus. A man wearing a yellow hoodie quickly enters the frame, running behind her.
Just past the alley, he grabs the woman and pulls her back toward the alley, where she falls to the ground. The man wrestles for control of her purse, literally dragging her along the ground as he tries to get control of her bag.
Once the bag breaks free, he bolts into the alley, stopping for a split second to pick something up from the ground. At that minute, another man zooms around the corner and chases the robber out of camera view. Watch:
Unfortunately, the robber got away. One witness reported that a man wearing a red shirt was also involved in the crime. They escaped in a silver SUV, possibly a Lexus, according to a preliminary CPD report.
At about 4:25 p.m., a man wearing a yellow hoodie and a man wearing a red shirt jumped out of a car and robbed a woman at gunpoint in the 2900 block of West Fulton, a second report said. The suspects were described as Black males in their early 20s.
Both robberies occurred in CPD’s Near West (12th) District. Robbery reports there were up 59% compared to last year as of last Monday, according to the police department’s weekly crime statistics summary. They’re up 78% versus 2019.
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