Two men and a juvenile were arrested Wednesday and are being investigated in connection with the recent series of attacks on Northwestern students, police said.
All three were charged with trying to assault and rob an Evanston woman with a BB gun at about 6 p.m. Wednesday while she was walking on the 800 block of Ashland Avenue.
Justin Moss, 18, of the 1800 block of Ashland; Dantrell Posey, 18, of the 200 block of Foster Street; and a 16-year-old Evanston resident were charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated battery.
The men now are considered suspects in seven recent robberies and assaults on NU students, said Cmdr. Michael Perry of Evanston Police Department. EPD plans to show the suspects’ mug shots to victims to see if they can identify the arrested as those who committed crimes.
“We’re looking at the three individuals in regards to the same pattern of robberies,” Perry said. “It’s just one of a pattern of robberies we’ve looked into.”
The three suspects are scheduled to appear Dec. 1 at Circuit Court in Skokie.
A 26-year-old woman told police she was attacked from behind and knocked to the ground by two men wearing black, Perry said.
One man yelled, “Give me your money,” and brandished what appeared to be a black handgun, Perry said. Another man grabbed her purse.
Perry said the men ran from the area, and the woman told police she thought she saw them enter an apartment on the 1800 block of Ashland.
Officers arrived at the apartment, and Moss, who lives there, confessed to the attack, Perry said.
Moss told officers that two other men involved in the robbery were in the apartment, Perry said. Police found Posey and the juvenile hiding in a closet with the woman’s purse and a BB gun.
Eight NU students have been assaulted or robbed in Evanston since the beginning of Fall Quarter. The most recent attack occurred early Tuesday, when a student was robbed of his cell phone and wallet near the intersection of Ridge Avenue and Emerson Street.
Two suspects admitted to assaulting a male student Oct. 3 near the intersection of Noyes Street and Sherman Avenue. EPD could not arrest the men because the victim did not want to sign a complaint.
This week other Evanston residents also have been the victims of assaults and robberies.
Since Tuesday four residents have been robbed and in three cases were threatened with weapons. One of the incidents involved a semiautomatic rifle, Perry said.
On Wednesday a 20-year-old man told police two men came up from behind him at about 9:30 p.m. on the 700 block of Madison Street. The men demanded money and pointed a semi-automatic rifle at his head, Perry said. The man told the assailants he didn’t have any money, and one of the robbers replied: “If you don’t give me anything, I will shoot you. I will kill you.”
The man told police he was forced to sit on the ground while his pockets were searched. When the robbers did not find anything, they told the man to take them to his apartment, Perry said. On the 800 block of Sherman, the men became distracted and the victim was able to escape.
