CHICAGO — Authorities have charged two migrants with robbing Lollapalooza concertgoers as the festival’s crowds left Grant Park last weekend. The men, who were arrested hours apart, are not accused of working together.
Edinson Yanez, 23, allegedly committed three robberies, including one that left the victim with broken ribs, after Lollapalooza ended Sunday night, August 4.
Around 11 p.m., Yanez allegedly plowed an electric scooter into a 26-year-old suburban man and stole the victim’s gold chain at 55 East Jackson. Prosecutors said Yanez bit the man and beat him with the scooter, breaking two ribs.
While the police were speaking with the victim, they learned that other CPD officers had detained a suspect who allegedly robbed two other men in the 300 block of South Dearborn, a police report said.
In that case, two men from suburban Atlanta, one 19 and the other 26, said Yanez grabbed one of them by the shirt and took his phone and necklace. Yanez tried, but failed, to take a chain from the second man, according to prosecutors. Cops tracked the phone’s location to locate Yanez nearby.
All three victims identified him as the person responsible, according to the CPD report.
Judge Susana Ortiz detained Yanez as a safety risk, saying he was already on pretrial release for a domestic violence case. She pointed to the “severely injured” victim who was beaten with a scooter and the randomness of the attacks on concertgoers as reasons she decided to keep him in jail.
He is charged with armed robbery, robbery, attempted robbery, and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.
Chicago police have arrested him four times since May 2023, according to CPD records.
A familiar face
You may remember the second man who is accused of trying to rob a victim after Lollapalooza. He’s Kent Minaya Munoz. We told you about him in June after prosecutors accused him of robbing a 7-Eleven in Streeterville.
A judge released him on electronic monitoring. However, the matter was dismissed a few days later when Judge Sharon Kanter found no probable cause.
Just weeks after that decision, the 33-year-old faces robbery charges once more.
Prosecutors said a 32-year-old man told police that he chased after a man who snatched his chain in the 300 block of South Dearborn, and other people intervened and held him down so he could not continue the pursuit.
The victim described one of the people who held him down, and the police took him for a ride to see if they could spot the man, according to a CPD report. When they arrived at the corner of Plymouth and Van Buren, the victim spotted Munoz on the sidewalk wearing the clothes he had described, the report said.
Judge Diedre Dyer released Munoz to await trial on a charge of attempted robbery.
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