Cabbie charged with sexually assaulting passenger

A Halloween reveler awoke this month to find her costume pants pulled down and her cab driver sexually assaulting her.
Tajamul Hussain Syed, listed in court records as a driver for 303 Taxi, faces a criminal sexual assault charge and was ordered held Saturday on $250,000 bail.
Syed, 23, allegedly picked up the woman on the morning of Nov. 1 at a Far Northwest Side home in the 8300 block of West Summerdale Avenue. She had been out with a friend for Halloween the evening before and fell asleep shortly after her friend helped her into Syed's taxi.
When she awoke in the cab her costume pants were down and Syed was sexually assaulting her. She pushed him off and he got back into the driver's seat and started driving. She then demanded that Syed stop the cab and she ran home. The alleged victim and her friend both identified Syed.
Syed, of the 6300 block of North Rockwell Street, was arrested while driving his cab in Evanston on Thursday.

3 teens charged in Northwest Side robberies

Three 15-year-old boys face robbery charges after they used toy guns to hold up a woman and a 14-year-old girl in the O’Hare neighborhood Thursday night.
The three boys were arrested at or near the Cumberland Blue Line station a within about 15 minutes of the robberies, which took place just after 7 p.m. Thursday. Police had to chase one of them onto the CTA right-of-way to catch him, causing a brief shutdown of Blue Line service.
One of the robberies took place in the 8700 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue a little after 7:05 p.m., when a group of teens approached a 31-year-old woman, showed a weapon and demanded property from her. They took the woman’s backpack and cell phone and fled.
About the same time, a 14-year-old girl walking in the 5400 block of North East River Road—about a block away from the other robbery—was approached by a group of teens, and one of them displayed a gun and announced a robbery. The group took a smartphone and earphones from the girl and ran off.
A few minutes later, officers located five teenage boys at the Cumberland Blue Line station, and quickly caught several of them. One of the 15-year-olds who later was charged got off the Cumberland platform and ran onto the Blue Line tracks before he was caught.
In the boys’ possession police found a backpack with two toy guns that matched the description of those used in the robberies.
Two of the 15-year-olds were charged with two counts of armed robbery, and the third was charged with one count of armed robbery. The other two taken into custody were released without charges.

Man charged with hate crime

A Norwood Park man has been charged with a hate crime after he jumped off his porch and yelled racial slurs as he chased a woman who works at a nearby hospital.
Tom Diamond was also charged with misdemeanor assault after the incident Saturday evening.
"Hey you stupid black nigger bitch, how does it feel to walk in an all-white neighborhood?" Diamond, 45, yelled from his porch
The woman said she kept walking and Diamond yelled, "You hear me? You must be from Englewood" .
The woman, who was wearing a nurse's uniform and had a stethoscope around her neck, told Diamond, "I'm not from around here” and said she worked at Resurrection Medical Center.
Diamond, who is white, then got off the porch and ran after her, screaming, "If I see you in my neighborhood again, I'm going to rape you and hang you from a tree.
"He jumped off his porch and chased me down,'' the woman said. He tried to grab her but she was able to get away, she said.
The woman said she ran toward Resurrection Medical Center in the 7400 block of West Talcott Avenue and called 911 as Diamond walked back to his home. Officers arrested Diamond at 8:10 p.m. at his home

Home invasion leaves man, 64, hospitalized in Norwood Park East neighborhood

A 64-year-old man was taken to a hospital after two men forced their way inside his apartment, punched him in the face and tried to steal his television last night in the Norwood Park East neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
 Police were called to the 6300 block of North Milwaukee Avenue about 9 p.m. for a burglary in progress and found it was a home invasion.
 A witness told investigators two men knocked on the man’s door, and when he opened it they pushed their way in and began punching him in the face, causing lacerations and bruising.
 They began trying to flee with a television but it was dropped as one of the suspects jumped from the man’s second-floor balcony to a balcony on the floor below, where a 22-year-old woman lives.
 When she began screaming as he ran through her home, he threatened to shoot her. Both suspects fled without the television.
 Paramedics took the man to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
He remains hospitalized Friday afternoon in serious condition.
Someone saw a red 4-door car fleeing the scene and the suspects, who are between the ages of 20 and 25, have not been arrested

3 charged in Norwood Park West home invasion after great Police work

Charges have been filed against three men who police say kicked their way into a Northwest Side home earlier this week while the couple living there was still at home.
Chicago police officers who responded to a burglary-in-progress call were able to arrive in time at the Norwood Park West neighborhood home in the 5800 block of North Oconto Avenue to arrest all three suspects.
At about 7:30 p.m. Monday, three men began kicking the front and a rear door of the residence while a couple was inside.
The residents weren't injured.
The men, Demarcos Felton, 27, and Scott Edwards, 22, both of the 5100 block of West Crystal Street, and Jordan Michael Scott, 21, of suburban Berkley, were each charged with one count of attempted residential burglary