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| Dwayne Williams (Chicago Police booking photo) |
Posted: Friday, 20 November 2009 6:32AM
Police nab 3 in Craigslist robberies
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CHICAGO (STNG) -- A West Pullman man and two South Side brothers have been charged with stealing cash and property at gunpoint from victims thinking they were meeting to buy televisions and other electronics advertised on Craigslist.
Dwayne Williams, 20, of the 12000 block of South Justine Street, was charged at 6 a.m. Thursday with 12 counts of armed robbery in eight incidents. In some of the incidents two people were robbed, police said.
Williams was arrested at 10 p.m. Tuesday in the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue after police saw a suspicious posting on the Craigslist Web site and contacted the poster to arrange a meeting at the Parnell address posing as a “customer” buying an item advertised on the site, according to a Calumet Area sergeant who did not want to be identified.
The officers posing as customers arrived at the meeting location and suspect, who fit the description of the lone suspect who robbed the other victims, was arrested. He was placed into custody, and police also recovered a .32 caliber revolver used during the robberies, the sergeant said.
No one was hurt during the attacks, which began in October and continued through early November. All the attacks happened within a three-block range of the Parnell Avenue address and mostly occurred at night, the sergeant said.
“What would happen is the victims would email or call Craigslist, and at that point, a prearranged location was decided upon. The person would say meet me at ‘X’ location and bring $500 bucks with you,” the sergeant said. “They would go to that location and the person robbed them.”
The items advertised were often electronics, including televisions, the sergeant said. In addition to the cash, Williams would also allegedly sometimes take personal property, such as cell phones, the sergeant said.
All twelve victims were brought in for a physical lineup and all of them positively identified Williams as the person who allegedly robbed them, the sergeant said.
It was not immediately known if more suspects were being sought or if authorities would try to link Williams to any other similar incidents.
In a similar crime spree being investigated by Wentworth Area detectives, brothers Jalmar and Jamelle Smalling, 19 and 18 respectively, both of the 6600 block of South Bell Avenue, were charged with five counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted armed robbery for trying to rob an undercover arresting officer, police said.
The charges were approved at 1:25 a.m. Thursday, according to police, who said the siblings used an almost identical pattern as the Calumet Area case. When customers would arrive to purchase an item advertised on Craigslist, such as a television, they were led down a gangway and robbed at gunpoint, according to police.
The robberies involving the brothers all occurred within the last two weeks in area of the 6700 block of South Bishop Street, according to police.
One of the six victims is an Evanston doctor doing his residency at a hospital in the area, according to police, who said the doctor drives a Lamborghini. The brothers were only charged with five armed robberies because one of the six victims decided they did not want to pursue the case, according to police, who said the doctor was not the person who did not pursue charges.
Nobody was hurt in the Wentworth Area robberies and no other suspects are being sought in those robberies.
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