Chicago police believe they have apprehended a three-man crew responsible for a series of brutal daylight robberies that have shaken the city recently.
The arrests took place Saturday afternoon, approximately 30 minutes before the CPD issued its second community notice on the robbery gang, which police have now tied to at least eight armed holdups this month alone.
The suspects in each case leaped out of a gray Infiniti Q50 and robbed pedestrians at gunpoint before leaving, according to CPD. In many cases, the robbers demanded phone passcodes and pistol-whipped their victims before escaping.
According to a person acquainted with the case, police discovered that the stolen Infiniti returned to the Washington Boulevard and Central Avenue area after each theft spree. This intelligence prompted investigators to deploy additional resources to the area.
Around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, officers saw the Infiniti with all three suspects inside and pursued it for about eight minutes before the suspects fled near Kostner Avenue and Le Moyne Street. Officers pursued the suspects on foot and captured all three. The source reports that the driver had a gun when arrested.
According to the source, the police detained the Infiniti and recovered some of the robbery victims’ stolen belongings. Charges remained pending as of Sunday morning.
Previous Reporting
The most recent attack happened just before 11:20 a.m. on Friday in the 300 block of North Laflin Street in the West Loop. Two masked gunmen approached three victims—two men, aged 32 and 46, and a 43-year-old lady—who were sitting inside a red vehicle.
Surveillance footage captured the entire incident: the suspects backed the Infiniti into a parking spot in front of the victims’ car, then swiftly disembarked from the vehicle and went to both sides of the red car, demanding belongings at gunpoint. The perpetrators fled south on Laflin, carrying stolen things. There were no injuries recorded.
By Saturday afternoon, Chicago police had issued a second community notice, formally linking the crime to a growing trend of violent thefts dating back to early Thursday.
Around 7 a.m. Thursday, three masked men jumped out of a car and ambushed a woman walking in the 1400 block of West Carroll Avenue in West Town. One of the attackers pistol-whipped her twice in the head before the group stole her pocketbook and phone.
Another heist occurred approximately three hours later inside a parking garage at Rush University Medical Center, located in the 1500 block of West Harrison Street. Two males clad totally in black and armed with firearms attacked two victims on the garage’s ground floor, stealing a Coach bag and a maroon backpack before fleeing in a gray Infiniti.
The crew attacked again early on Friday morning. At 7:40 a.m., three masked offenders—two armed—robbed a guy in the 1200 block of West Carroll, taking his possessions and driving away in a gray vehicle. Only 40 minutes later, at 8:21 a.m., two masked guys tried another heist nearby, holding a woman at gunpoint. The woman was unharmed, and the robbers left without taking anything.
Two other robberies occurred less than an hour after the first. At 9:14 a.m., a victim was robbed in the 800 block of West Blackhawk. Then, authorities reported another attempted robbery on the 900 block of West Weed Street, near Goose Island, at 9:26 a.m. Both incidents included suspects matching previous descriptions and the same stolen gray Infiniti.