A 30-year-old man with a distinctive tattoo under his eye is facing armed robbery charges after prosecutors say he terrorized two 16-year-old boys at gunpoint, stole their electronics, and forced them to reveal their passwords.
Prosecutors said Ramon Bell confronted the teens behind a restaurant in the 6400 block of South Martin Luther King Drive around 10:08 p.m. on May 24. Bell allegedly brandished a pistol equipped with a red switch that he said could make the weapon fire automatically like a machine gun.
According to a detention filing, Bell took the teens’ cell phones, their Chicago Public Schools–issued Chromebooks, and an iPad. He then forced them into the restaurant and made them write down the passwords to their devices before marching them back outside, the document said. Bell reportedly fled in a white minivan.
The victims recalled a unique tattoo under Bell’s right eye, described as a box next to a question mark. When police checked with Parkway Gardens security officers, one of the guards said they knew exactly who matched that description: Ramon Bell.
Last week, Chicago police officers spotted Bell walking about three blocks from the robbery scene and arrested him without incident. Judge Lindsay Huge detained him on charges of armed robbery and aggravated robbery.
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