CHICAGO — Prosecutors have charged a man with committing an armed robbery in Old Town last month. The holdup was one of many that occurred in a short time, but Darian Taylor, 19, is only accused of participating in one of them. He is, however, charged with possessing items that belong to a second robbery victim.
Starting around 6 p.m. on January 18, Chicago police began receiving calls about a string of robberies occurring across the Near West Side and the West Loop.
At 6:35 p.m., four masked men jumped out of a dark Hyundai in the 1400 block of North Cleveland in Old Town. They all pointed guns at a man and took his wallet and keys, officials said.
Detectives issued a community alert a few days later in which they said they believed the Cleveland robbery was the last of six committed in 45 minutes by the same crew.
Earlier this month, a CPD report said, cops were patrolling the area of Ohio and Christiana because cars used in armed robberies have been dumped there frequently. They saw 19-year-old Darian Taylor and others walking through a gangway, matching the descriptions of suspects from multiple robberies, the report said.
The officers stopped the group and found a credit card under Taylor’s foot that belonged to a woman, the report stated. Another card belonging to the same woman was found inside a Kia Sportage that had been abandoned nearby.
Ultimately, prosecutors charged Taylor with armed robbery for last month’s holdup in Old Town and misdemeanor theft of lost or mislaid property.
Judge Deidre Dyer agreed to keep Taylor in jail as a safety risk. She said he was already on probation for another matter, which reduced her confidence in his ability to follow the court’s instructions.
