Comcast worker shot during apparent robbery

A  Comcast worker was shot and seriously wounded early this afternoon after parking his truck in an alley in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side.
Two men approached the worker around 12:55 p.m. in the 7600 block of South Kingston Avenue, took his cell phone and wallet and shot him in the stomach.
The robbers fled in a white car.
The worker, 45, was taken in critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The worker's truck was parked in the alley between Kingston and Essex Avenue when the robbery occurred.

Men charged in Sprint cell phone store robbery

Two Chicago men were arrested Thursday morning in Chicago Lawn and accused of robbing a Sprint cell phone store at gunpoint.
Omar Anderson, 20, and Victor Mayberry, 18, entered the cell phone outlet, 7920 S. Western Ave., in the morning armed with a gun, according to court records. The men then told two store employees to stuff cash from the register and as many cell phones, particularly iPhones, as they could into bags.
Prosecutors said one employee pushed the store's emergency alarm while another brought one of the men into the back of the store to collect more cell phones, and the two men then fled the store. Anderson escaped in a car but one employee gave chase in his car until an accident stopped him; police later caught up with Anderson in the 7700 block of South Western Avenue, where he was arrested.
Mayberry, who was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer, theft, and an aggravated unlawful weapons offense, was arrested in the 7500 block of South Western Avenue after he punched his arresting officer in the face and chest

Teen hijacks car, forces woman to call fiancé for cash

A  teen forced his way into a car in the Edgewater neighborhood and ordered a woman inside to call her fiancé to get cash.
Broderick Epps, 18, walked up to the car in the 1100 block of West Ardmore Avenue around 10:15 p.m. on New Year's Day.  He indicated he had a gun and then began driving around while demanding cash from an 18-year-old woman who was in the car.
The woman told Epps she did not have any money and he ordered her to call her fiancé.
Foster District police were flagged down by the fiancé, who told them about the call and that he was supposed to meet up with the robber. Officers went to the location and  spotted Epps walking north with the woman.
Epps saw the officers and ran, but he was caught in the 6400 block of North Sheridan Road and identified by the woman.
Epps, of the 4200 block of Main Street in Skokie, was charged with vehicular hijacking, vehicular invasion and unlawful restraint, all felonies

Man charged in series of robberies on the NW Side

A 49-year-old man who was arrested minutes after he tried to rob a Walgreens Drug Store on New Year's Eve has been charged in a series of similar robberies on the Northwest Side.
Robert E. Williams, of the 1000 block of North Kedzie Avenue, was charged with five counts of aggravated robbery and violating his probation.
Williams was arrested on New Year's Eve after he walked into the Walgreens store on the 2400 block of West North Avenue at 3:08 p.m.
After entering the store, he approached the cashier and announced that he was committing a robbery and implied that he had a weapon.
The 28-year-old cashier handed over cash to Williams who then left the store. As he tried to flee, two people who noticed what had happened, tackled the man and held him for police.
Shakespeare District officers then responded took him into custody. Police also found the money that he had just received in the robbery.
During the investigation police discovered that Williams had also been responsible for other robberies including the robbery of a gas station on the 2800 block of North Ashland Avenue on Dec. 29.
In most cases, Williams approached cashiers, supposedly to purchase items, and then announced a robbery.  In all of the incidents, Williams  threatened the victims by implying he had a weapon

Man held on $400K bail in sexual assault, robbery of woman

A Cook County judge on Tuesday set bail at $400,000 for a Chicago man who allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed a woman who was walking home from work early Monday morning.
The man, Devonte Willis, 20, was on probation for aggravated robbery at the time of the crime.
Willis allegedly pulled out a gun and demanded money and property from a 24-year-old woman who was  walking home from the Red Line stop at 63rd Street  around 5:40 a.m. Monday.

Willis took the woman’s cell phone and purse and told the her it was not enough, Dibler said. Willis then asked her what she was willing to do to save her life.

The woman began crying when Willis began touching her. He then forced her at gunpoint into a vacant lot and sexually assaulted her twice behind a large container.

He then took her state ID, $13 and a cell phone from her purse and told the woman he now knew where she lived so she should not call police.

The victim then ran home and called 911. Police responding to a flash alert of the offender, who was described as wearing a multi-colored Chicago Bulls skullcap, dark sweater and light-colored jeans, arrested Willis about four hours later on the sidewalk near his home in the 6200 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

Willis had the victim’s cell phone case with him and admitted to police that he had robbed and sexually assaulted the woman.

A mask that covered part of Willis’ face during the attack was recovered from his apartment and was identified by the victim.

Willis pleaded guilty in April to aggravated robbery and was sentenced by Judge Thomas Davy to 2 years probation with credit for 143 days served in jail

Home invasion in Belmont Heights

 A 67-year-old woman was hit in the face after two men broke into her home in the 3700 block of North Oconto Avenue in the Belmont Heights neighborhood. The woman freed herself from the restraints and ran to a neighbor's home. The neighbor called 911.
The woman had bruises on her face but refused treatment from paramedics and told police she would go to the doctor with family members.
Police said the two attackers made off with jewelry and other items from her home.

Home invasion in Jefferson Park

Two women were bound while men ransacked their Northwest Side homes the last four days.
It’s not clear if the two incidents are related. The most recent happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday and the other around 11:30 p.m. Friday. The home are three miles apart.
In the first incident, in the 5200 block of North Mobile Avenue in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, a woman heard a knock and, assuming it was her husband, opened her door. Two men pushed their way inside but the woman later told police she heard three different voices.
The men tied her with a cord they found in the home and put her in the back of the house while they ransacked rooms and stole money and electronics.

Man charged in Midway Orange Line, Montclare rape attacks

A  30-year-old Park West man was charged with a pair of sexual assaults on Friday – one near the Orange Line at Midway Airport and the other in the Montclare neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
James Whiteside, of the 600 block of West Deming Street on the North Side. Whiteside was charged with 8 felonies in connection with the two attacks.
The first attack happened in the Montclare neighborhood about 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 27. Whiteside attacked a woman trying to get into her car after leaving a White Castle restaurant near Belmont and Harlem avenues
The attacker pushed his victim into her car as she opened the driver-side door and, holding a pair of 3-inch scissors and covering her mouth, told her not to scream.
The woman told police she noticed the man as she walked into the White Castle at Belmont and Harlem avenues but didn’t pay him much attention because she thought he was homeless.
The man threatened to kill her and then drove her to a nearby side street and raped her.
The man then kept her in the car, drove until the car broke down on Diversey Avenue and threw her car keys away. He took her phone, debit card and walked her to a bank to try and withdraw money.
The two walked to a nearby gas station and the attacker used $50 he stole from the woman to pay a stranger for a ride to the house of the attacker's aunt in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood. They stopped at a McDonald's along the way.
The attacker gave some of the woman's money to people at his aunt's house. He then called a cab, took two kids and the victim with him to a McDonald's and then to Harlem and Belmont avenues where he dropped her off.
He told her not to say anything to anyone before leaving. The woman went to a building a few blocks away and called 911.
She told police the man said his name was "James" but that "she should call him Mr. White or (Sergeant) Nelson" .
The second attack happened about 4:15 p.m. Friday in a secured parking lot off the Orange Line at Midway Airport in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood. Chicago police warned people in the area to be vigilant after the attack.
Police said the attacker pushed the 69-year-old woman into her car as she opened her door and demanded money from her before he raped her.
He tried to leave the lot by driving the woman's car but couldn't find the parking pass card so he told the woman to be quiet and duck while he used her money to fill out a parking slip and pay the attendant.
The woman was in fear for her life because her attacker drove her to the West Side and made continuous threats along the way.
While driving around the West Side, her attacker "purchased narcotics" twice and picked up a woman he knew, drove to a liquor store and used the 69-year-old's ATM card to get $200.
He dropped the woman off at a bus stop and she told the attacker to be careful. He then left the victim and her car in the West Garfield Park neighborhood at Madison Street and Pulaski Road.
The victim called 911 but left the area to report the crime from closer to home. Two more withdrawals were made for a total of $300.
Whiteside "implicated himself" to other people in the attacks and gave details consistent with the victim's account. He told residents he "robbed and raped a woman the night before".
Detectives were in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood when Whiteside showed up to a building where detectives were investigating and tried to run when he learned detectives were there.
They chased him into a basement stairwell in the 4100 block of West Crystal Street and he was arrested there.
He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault of a victim older than 60 years old, aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated kidnapping, armed robbery with a dangerous weapon, aggravated robbery and aggravated vehicular hijacking.

Man, 70, shot during Gold Coast robbery outside Archbishop's Residence

A  70-year-old man was shot in the foot during a robbery outside the Archbishop's Residence in the North Side's Gold Coast neighborhood Friday night.
The man was walking his dog in the 1500 block of North Astor Street, adjacent to the mansion where Cardinal Francis George lives, when someone wearing a mask grabbed him from behind and put a gun to his head about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
"Give me your [expletive] wallet," the robber said.
When the 70-year-old explained that he doesn't carry a wallet, the assailant fired a shot into his foot. The man threw his cell phone and a few bills from a front pocket onto the ground in front of him, and the robber grabbed them and fled.
Hearing a commotion, the doorman of a nearby residence came outside and began to pursue the fleeing assailant down the street. The suspect turned and fired shots in the direction of the doorman and 70-year-old, striking a garage but not hitting either man.
Police confirmed that a man was shot during the course of a robbery on the block. The man's condition was stabilized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Marshals corner carjacking/murder suspect in McDonald's drive-thru

A suspect in a string of weekend carjackings, including one that ended in a crash that killed an 11-year-old boy, was arrested this morning after U.S. marshals in SUVs pinned him in at a McDonald's drive-thru in Milwaukee.
Rockie Douglas, 34, was waiting for food at the McDonald's on the northwest side of the city when deputy marshals pulled in front and back of him around 11:30 a.m., according to Ed Farrell, supervisory inspector of the task force. A woman in the car with him was not injured
We developed information that he was on the north side of (Milwaukee)," Farrell said. "We were able to pin him in the drive-thru and keep him from fleeing again."
Douglas was spotted still driving the blue Honda Accord he had carjacked on the ramp from Interstate Highway 294 to the Reagan Memorial Tollway to escape police over the weekend, authorities said. He was taken to the Milwaukee County Jail to await extradition to Chicago
Douglas had been sought since Saturday when, driving a stolen car, he barreled into a Chevrolet Suburban and killed 11-year-old Donovan Turnage on the South Side. Donovan, his brother and their father were out getting haircuts for the holiday
 Douglas embarked on a carjacking spree around 11:20 a.m. Friday on the North Side, when he forced a woman out of a green Dodge minivan at a gas station along West Irving Park Road.
About noon on Saturday, officers responded to a 911 call of a suspicious vehicle at 51st and Halsted streets in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, another police source said. When officers identified the vehicle as the one that had been carjacked the day before, they tried to approach it but the driver sped away.
Police pursued the vehicle south on Halsted until at Garfield Boulevard it crashed into the Chevrolet Suburban carrying the Turnage family.
The suspect then raced away on foot and, authorities allege, carjacked another vehicle, a Toyota SUV, at a nearby gas station. While driving the SUV, the suspect rammed into a police sergeant's squad car before heading onto Garfield in the opposite lanes of traffic.
Chicago police stopped pursuing the driver once he entered the Dan Ryan Expressway about a mile away. He again drove in the wrong direction, heading north in the southbound lanes.
But then, according to the chain of events described by authorities, the SUV broke down on a ramp from I-294 to the Reagan Memorial Tollway. A motorist driving a blue Honda Accord tried to help the man, later identified by police as Douglas. Douglas allegedly forced his way into the car and sped off west on the Reagan toll way.
Police say Douglas displayed a handgun during at least one of the carjackings. Douglas may also be linked to robberies in Oak Lawn and Burbank that occurred on Saturday

Suspect arrested after trying to rob off-duty cop in Lakeview

A man was taken into custody after trying to rob an off-duty Chicago police officer at knifepoint early this morning.
About 12:30 a.m., the 20-year-old man bicycled toward the officer as he was walking in the 1700 block of West Diversey Parkway. Displaying a knife, the suspect announced a robbery.
The off-duty officer announced his office and took his assailant into custody "without incident".
Police officers patrolling the area responded to help the officer and took the suspect to the Town Hall District station for processing.

39-year-old man in Archer Heights during robbery

A  39-year-old man was shot about 2 a.m. during an apparent robbery in the 4800 block of South Komensky Avenue. Police said the man was walking down the block when two assailants, one of them armed with a gun, approached and announced a robbery. The man cooperated but was shot in the shoulder, and his assailants fled with his wallet and cell phone.
The man was listed in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center of Oak Lawn.

Accused taxi hijacker found asleep in cab

A Chicago man was accused of hijacking a taxi cab in Logan Square early Sunday morning after police officers found him asleep in the cab.
Danny Canchola, Jr., of the 5500 block of South Fransisco Avenue, was arrested at 6 a.m. near 900 South Plymouth Court after a cab driver identified him as the man who stole his taxi cab after climbing in without permission at a red light.
Canchola jumped into the cab while it was stopped at a red light near the intersection of Fullerton Avenue and Rockwell Avenue, even though the 34-year-old cab driver told him he was off-duty.
The driver started driving because the light had changed and other cars were honking at him, prosecutors said, when Canchola began to punch him in the back of the head. The driver then called 911 and exited the cab, which Canchola drove off in.
Police used the Blue Ribbon Cab company's GPS system to track the missing cab down to the South Loop, where  they found Canchola asleep in the vehicle

$275K bail for suspect after staffers thwart Walgreens armed robbery

Two Walgreens staffers are being credited with stopping a man armed with a loaded gun who was trying to rob the store late Friday in the West Town community.
Police said the suspect, Benjamin H. Strong, 21, of the 3700 block of North Narragansett Avenue in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood, has been charged with attempted armed robbery with a firearm.
Bail was set at $275,000 for Strong who appeared in bond court today. In court, officials said Strong has a three month old son and lives with his girlfriend and his mother.
The incident happened late Friday night as the Walgreens, in the 2400 block of West North Avenue, was closing.
The first responding officers saw one of the victims, a male staffer who had been pistol-whipped by Strong, standing outside the store’s doors with blood “streaming from his face,’’ according to a police report, which stated the worker yelled at police: “He’s robbing us with a gun, he’s still inside.’’
Inside, officers found the store manager “on top’’ of Strong, who officers took into custody at 12:17 a.m. Saturday. A 9 mm handgun loaded with two live rounds was recovered.
The bloodied staffer told officers that Strong entered the store through a storage or employee room door and hit him in the head with the gun and demanded that he open the door to the manager’s office.
Strong announced a robbery as he pointed the loaded gun at a manager who was inside the office but the two staffers began struggling with Strong.
Once the manager got the best of Strong, the other worker was able to call 911 and leave the store to get help.
Police learned a third staffer who saw the entire incident was inside the storage area, hiding.
The injured staffer, who suffered a two to three inch cut to his forehead, was released from Norwegian-American Hospital after he received five stitches

Thief follows woman from 'L,' is caught after return to same station

A man who held a Roscoe Village woman against her will and stole from her after following her home from a North Side "L" stop on Thursday then returned to the same station to ask for directions.
Officers found Martise Earl Lowe, 21, getting off the train at the Brown Line’s Western station late Thursday or early Friday, carrying an Apple laptop later identified as the victim’s.
Lowe trailed the woman from the Brown Line’s Paulina station to her home in the 1700 block of West Henderson Street. He then entered her house, grasped her throat and threw her to the floor. Lowe took an iPhone and computer from the home.
As police looked for the robber, an attendant at the Paulina station remembered a man matching the description who asked for directions to the Western stop. Police found Lowe getting off a train there, holding a computer. When they took him back to the crime scene, the victim identified Lowe as her attacker and the electronics he was carrying as her own. Police arrested him there about 12:15 a.m. Friday

Loyola cafeteria robbery planned for months

Two men, including a dining hall employee, were charged with aggravated robbery after a cafeteria manager at Loyola University Chicago was held at gunpoint early Friday and forced to hand over money from a safe.
Rodrick L. Moore, 31, and Martell Howze, 25, each face two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated kidnapping in connection with the 2:30 a.m. incident at the Damen Student Center, 6511 N. Sheridan Road, in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Moore, who police reports say threatened the worker and took the money, faces a second count of aggravated kidnapping.
Howze, who prosecutors said worked at the cafeteria and spent months planning the heist with Moore, did not appear in court.
According to his arrest report, Moore approached the 39-year-old cafeteria worker and displayed what appeared to be a handgun after the dining center had closed. He then grabbed the woman by the arm and placed the supposed gun to her head, forcing her to remove more than $2,800 and place it in his backpack. Moore also took the worker’s cell phone and keys belonging to the university before fleeing.
The worker pulled a fire alarm to alert authorities to the crime, records show, and described the robber to Loyola police. Officers soon found Moore at the nearby Loyola Red Line "L" stop and he had the money from the safe in his backpack.
Police found the weapon, which turned out to be a replica, and the keys and phone were found discarded at or near the station, according to the arrest report. Moore admitted to the robbery and was identified by the victim.
While searching Moore’s possessions at the police station, officers found paperwork belonging to Howze that led them to believe he was a co-conspirator. In court, prosecutors said the pair had been planning the robbery for months and that Howze, of the 200 block of East 89th Place, provided Moore with information about the building’s layout and tips for getting past security.

Store robber shot dead in South Chicago

A man trying to rob a South Side cell phone store Tuesday died after an exchange of gunfire with the store clerk as another man inside broke his ankle trying to escape the shootout.
Police say 25-year-old Demarcus Brandon tried to rob the store, in the 1700 block of East 87th Street, but was shot dead by the clerk about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Brandon was pronounced dead at the scene. Police found a handgun they believed to be his.
Police said there was an exchange of gunfire between Brandon and the clerk, though it’s not clear who shot first.
Brandon was paroled from the Shawnee Correctional Center this summer, where he had been serving concurrent 3-year and 13-year sentences.
The 13-year sentence stemmed from an incident in Chicago in which Brandon was charged with armed robbery with a firearm, armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, gun possession, aggravated fleeing from police, and having either a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches or shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches.
That case, and the one that ended with a 3-year sentence, both ended in plea deals. He was credited for about 20 months time served and admitted to IDOC custody in September 2008.
His projected parole discharge date was in July of 2016.

27-year-old man shot during robbery in West Pullman

In  the city's West Pullman neighborhood shortly before 2 p.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the chest and seriously hurt during a robbery in the 12200 block of South Harvard Avenue.
The victim's condition had stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn

Life in prison for 2011 Grant Park sex assault, robbery

A homeless man convicted last month in the 2011 robbery and sexual assault of a Schiller Park grandfather in Grant Park was sentenced to natural life in prison plus seven years today.
Cortez Foster, 47, was convicted Nov. 1 of aggravated criminal sexual assault and robbery in the attack on the 65-year-old man starting just before midnight on March 25, 2011 in the 800 block of South Michigan Avenue near the park’s Logan Monument.
On Thursday, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Dennis Porter sentenced him to natural life in prison on the sexual assault charge, plus another 7 years for the robbery conviction.
The night of the attack, the victim was walking in the park when Foster went up to him and started punching and kicking him, took the victim’s pants off, assaulted him with a tree branch and stole his cell phone.
A passerby saw the victim leaning against a concrete railing and wearing no pants after he had walked north a short distance, and the passerby called police. About 12:15 that morning officers found the victim, who was unable to speak, in the 700 block of South Michigan Avenue.
The victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for multiple facial fractures and cuts, and underwent surgery because of the sexual assault.
Police investigators traced the victim’s missing cell phone to a nearby apartment complex and found the man who had it, who told detectives he gave Foster three Viagra pills for the phone. Investigators figured out who Foster was by checking a log book at the apartment complex, and found Foster at the Pacific Garden Mission.
Foster had been on parole after being released from prison after serving part of 20-year-sentence for a 2001 armed robbery conviction. After his arrest, he admitted to police he became angry and attacked the 65-year-old victim at the park. He also had two other felony convictions, including in a 1991 robbery and sexual assault case.

35-year-old man shot during robbery

A 35-year-old man was shot in the hand in the 200 block of North Francisco Avenue during a robbery. Someone approached him and demanded money and the two struggled before the 35-year-old was shot. He walked into Mount Sinai Hospital with the wound and is in stable condition.