Crew charged in string of 4 armed robberies; suspected in dozens more
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Four men have been charged in a string of four armed robberies Monday morning on the North and Northwest sides, and police believe the crew is responsible for dozens of other similar robberies.
Dashun McGraw, 19, Marquise Green, 20, Marcus Carter, 20, and Marchelo Hicks, 21, all are charged with four counts of armed robbery, four counts of aggravated armed robbery, and four counts of robbery, according to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown. Carter, Hicks, and Green also are charged with one count each of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Brown said the four are responsible for four robberies on Monday morning; two between about 3:15 a.m. and 3:18 a.m. on the 2400 block of West Berwyn Avenue and the 4300 block of North Leavitt Street, and two more between 10:26 a.m. and 10:39 a.m. on the 2100 block of North Claremont Avenue and the 4100 block of North Wolcott Avenue.
In all four robberies, three of the men approached victims who were either walking alone, or sitting in parked car, demanding their property at gunpoint, before fleeing in a waiting car.
Police have said, around 10:45 a.m., officers spotted the robbers in a stolen Hyundai near Winnemac and Oakley avenues. The men fled from police before crashing into a white Department of Streets and Sanitation box truck at the corner of Oakley Avenue and Winona Street, and then burst into flames.
Brown said the four men ran off after the crash, and police tracked them to a nearby garage, where all four were arrested. Three guns also were recovered.
Chopper 2 was overhead as police hauled one of the suspects away down an alley.
"A woman was pistol-whipped and we had to get in front of it," said Rogers Park (24th) District police Sgt. Syed Quadri. "Luckily, we were able to be in the right place in the right time."
Police believe all four are responsible for dozens of other robberies, possibly including all 50 robberies listed in a recent community alert.
"We've got to put together the cases to prove that these were the offenders," Brown said. "We believe these are the guys."
Brown said, because police believe the men are responsible for dozens of other violent robberies, they should be held without bail as they await trial.
"Every moment that they're going to be out of jail, whether on electronic monitoring, or otherwise on bail or bond, they'll be committing more robberies. They're a threat to this community, they're a threat to our officers' safety. These are dangerous people, and they need to be held until trial," Brown said.
Brown called out the courts on the next steps - not only because of the violent nature of these crimes, but the volume of crimes that police believe these four men are behind.
"It's important this hard work is not undone by our courts not taking this seriously," Brown said. "This is a danger to the community."
Molina reached out to the Cook County State's Attorney's office and the Chief Judge's office with those comments and requests Wednesday. Neither would comment on pending cases.
CBS 2 has been investigating this growing pattern of armed robberies for weeks - and in reality, we believe there have actually been more than 100 violent robberies in the past month in the city – all of them on the North, Northwest, and West sides.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported Tuesday, one of expert said the violence involved in these robberies really stands out. The victims are not resisting, but we are still seeing the people behind these robberies use weapons to threaten to attack their victims.
Police said all of the robberies happened in the overnight and early morning hours. In each robbery, a group of two to four people in a car, and armed with guns, targets people who are on foot or sitting in a parked vehicle.
These robberies were reported between Wednesday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Dec. 10 – with some of them happening in a span of just a few minutes.
The times and locations are as follows.
- 2400 block of West Fullerton Avenue, Logan Square, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 2:08 a.m.
- 1500 block of North Ashland Avenue, Wicker Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 2:54 a.m,
- 2700 block of West Augusta Boulevard, Humboldt Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 3:05 a.m.
- 1500 block of North Western Avenue, Wicker Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 4:15 a.m.
- 2700 block of North Central Avenue, Belmont Central, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 4:21 a.m.
- 4000 block of North Central Avenue, Portage Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 4:42 a.m.
- 5300 block West Berenice Avenue, Portage Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 4:44 a.m.
- 5200 block of West North Avenue, North Austin, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5 a.m.
- 1100 block of North Hamlin Avenue, Humboldt Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5:20 a.m.
- 2300 block of West Rice Street, Ukrainian Village, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5:30 a.m.
- 3100 block of West Division Street, Humboldt Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5:44 a.m.
- 3300 block of West Wabansia Avenue, Humboldt Park, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5:45 a.m.
- 3400 block of West Armitage Avenue, Logan Square, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 5:55 a.m.
- 1600 block of North Cicero Avenue, North Austin, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 6:20 a.m.
- 5200 block of West Crystal Street, North Austin, Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 6:40 a.m.
- 3200 block of West Cortez Street, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 12:30 a.m.
- 1700 block of North St. Louis Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 12:45 am.
- 600 block of N Leclaire Ave Thursday, Dec. 8, at approximately at 12:50 a.m.
- 1000 block of North Campbell Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:20 a.m.
- 800 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:25 a.m.
- 2200 block of West Superior Street, West Town, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:27 a.m.
- 1700 block of West Superior Street, West Town, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:35 a.m.
- 1200 block of North Pulaski Road, West Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:37 a.m.
- 1400 block of North Hamlin Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 1:51 a.m.
- 1300 block of North Keeler Avenue, West Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 2:06 a.m.
- 800 block of North Harding Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5:15 a.m.
- 800 block of North Drake Avenue, Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5:20 a.m.
- 4100 block of West Division Street, West Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5;30 a.m.
- 1100 block of North Karlov Avenue, West Humboldt Park, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5:30 a.m.
- 1100 block of North LeClaire Avenue, South Austin, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5:30 a.m.
- 1100 block of North Cicero Avenue, South Austin, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 5:38 a.m.
- 1400 block of North Sandburg Terrace (Clark Street), Old Town, Friday, Dec. 9, at 11:19 p.m.
- 2800 block of North Wolcott Avenue, North Center, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 12:07 a.m.
- 0-99 block of East Chicago Avenue, River North, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1 a.m.
- 6100 block of North Glenwood Avenue, Edgewater, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1:08 a.m.
- 1300 block of West George Street, Lakeview, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 1:38 a.m.
- 2500 block of West Walton Street, Humboldt Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 1:40 a.m.
- 6300 block of North Bell Avenue, West Rogers Park, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1:50 a.m.
- 6200 block of North Bell Avenue, West Rogers Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 1:55 a.m.
- 6200 block of North Talman Avenue, West Rogers Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 1:58 a.m.
- 1300 block of West Fillmore Street, Near West Side, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 2:05 a.m.
- 1200 block of North Maplewood Avenue, Humboldt Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2:25 a.m.
- 2700 block of West Iowa Street, Humboldt Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2:30 a.m.
- 2700 block of West Superior Street, West Town, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2:35 a.m.
- 2100 block of N. Maplewood Ave Saturday, Dec. 10, at approximately 2:40 am.
- 700 block of North Rockwell Street, West Town, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2:52 a.m.
- 700 block of North California Avenue, Humboldt Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 3:52 a.m.
- 700 block of North California Avenue, Humboldt Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 4 a.m.
- 2700 block of West Grand Avenue, West Town, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 4:02 a.m.
- 600 block of North Trumbull Avenue, East Garfield Park, Saturday, Dec. 10, at 4:10 a.m.
Police have only a vague description of the robbers, who were wearing dark clothes, hoodies, and ski masks, and were armed with multiple handguns.
But these 50 are just the tip of the iceberg. We have been tracking the spike in violent robberies for weeks.
We are past 100 violent robberies now this past month – with an average of more than a few a day.
"These robberies are concentrated," said criminologist and Loyola University professor Arthur Lurigio, criminologist and professor at Loyola University. "They're perhaps coordinated and orchestrated."
Looking at all these robberies on the city's North and West sides, Lurigio's first take is that "there might be a leadership dispatching a crew of armed robbers."
Lurigio said the excessive violence really stands out when looking closer at all of the robberies we've tracked. Most striking is the number of people who have not resisted the crews of men demanding their stuff at gunpoint, but who have been thrown to the ground or beaten with guns anyway.
Furthermore, everything happened so quickly in the robberies that Lurigio said it's a tough crime for police to make arrests in.
We asked Supt. Brown about that. He said surveillance plays a big role.
"In the community talking about what was on their cameras - the Ring cameras; the cameras we use," Brown said. "All of that video together led to a very aggressive surveillance plan put in place - which put us in the right place at the right time to capture them in real time as we believe they attempted to do more robberies."
Chicago Police tell us multiple districts coordinated to make these arrests and to continue to crack down on these robberies.