CHICAGO — Two men, including one who was supposed to be home on electronic monitoring, went on a crosstown robbery spree, mugging victims from 79th Street to Lakeview and Uptown before finally being arrested at the Addison Red Line station, officials said.
Bryant Robinson and Jerome Jackson, both 20, are each charged with four counts of robbery and one count of aggravated battery in a public place.
Prosecutors said Robinson, Jackson, and at least two others started their two-hour crime spree around 10 p.m. Friday at the 79th Street Red Line station, getting away with the victim’s Beats headphones.
After taking the Red Line north, the group allegedly mugged a 57-year-old man in the 4200 block of North Clarendon. He told police that four men surrounded him as he walked, and Robinson rifled through his pockets for valuables. Robinson took the man’s cash out of his wallet, tossed the billfold to the ground, and fled, a Chicago police report said.
The group also mugged a 26-year-old woman in the 3200 block of North Pine Grove. When her boyfriend tried to intervene, Robinson raised his shirt to display an apparent firearm in his waistband, according to the report.
In the 600 block of West Waveland, the crew grabbed a man by the throat, dragged him between planters and parked cars, and forced him to his knees as they robbed him, officials said.
A Chicago police surveillance camera operator spotted four people who matched the suspects’ descriptions entering the Addison Red Line station a short time later. Cops moved in and arrested them. Officers allegedly recovered a pistol-shaped Tazer from the crew.
Prosecutors asked Judge David Kelly to detain both men, but the judge only agreed to keep Robinson in custody pending trial.
According to court records, Robinson has been arrested two other times in recent weeks.
On September 23, police responded to the 35th Street Red Line station after a group of men robbed an 18-year-old man, taking his phone and book bag on the platform. CPD officers trailed the suspects to the 79th Street Red Line station and detained Robinson, according to an arrest report.
The victim could not identify Robinson as one of the robbers, so Robinson was never charged with the crime, the report said. However, police charged Robinson with reckless conduct and theft of services for allegedly jumping a CTA turnstile and chasing and throwing punches at the robbery victim.
He was cited and released from the police station.
A month later, on October 22, police arrested Robinson on charges of assault and obstruction of identification in the 5100 block of North Long. Judge Susana Ortiz put him on court-operated electronic monitoring with a nighttime curfew, according to records.
