Evanston police arrested four men, including a Northwestern student with a criminal record, in three separate robbery incidents in the past week, authorities said Tuesday.
Weinberg junior Braden K. Jones, 20, was arrested Monday on charges that he assaulted and tried to rob a cab driver early that morning. Jones pleaded guilty last March to punching a police officer in January 2003.
Jones is a linebacker on the NU football team. In July 2001, during the summer before he began his freshman year, he suffered brain damage after getting a concussion during a fight in Nashville, Tenn., on the campus of Vanderbilt University. Jones was not charged in that incident.
A taxi cab driver told police he picked up a man on the 1500 block of Kingsbury Street in Chicago at about 3 a.m. Monday, said Deputy Chief Michael Perry of Evanston Police Department. The man sat in the front seat of the cab and had the driver take him to the 800 block of Foster Street. When the cab arrived there, the passenger told the driver he had only Canadian money, and the two had an argument during which the passenger yelled at the driver and demanded money from him, Perry said. The passenger then struck the driver in the face and head, Perry added.
According to police, during the fight the offender left his wallet in the cab, which led police to arrest Jones later Monday. He was charged with two counts of felony aggravated battery.
Billy R. Hughley, 36, of the 2300 block of Greenleaf Street, and Charles Scott Jr., 36, of the 1500 block of Maple Avenue, were charged Saturday night with the beating and robbing an acquaintance at Scott’s residence.
The victim was inside the residence at about 9 p.m. Saturday talking to two men he knew, who then asked him for money, probably as a result of a previous altercation, Perry said. The victim refused to give the men any money, at which point one of them pulled him to the ground and choked him, while the other started punching him. The offenders searched the man’s pockets and took $19 from him, Perry said.
Five minutes later the victim flagged down an EPD officer, and as he was talking to the officer, a another man was seen leaving the building, getting into a car and driving away, Perry said. Police stopped it and the victim identified the men inside as his attackers. The money was recovered.
Hughley and Scott are charged with robbery.
And Steven C. Dykes, 17, of the 1800 block of Brown Avenue, was charged with trying to rob a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint Monday night.
A Papa John’s deliveryman was walking away from a house on the 1900 block of Grey Avenue at 8:12 p.m. Monday when the offender approached him, pointed a .32 caliber pistol at his face and demanded money, Perry said. The deliveryman held out some money to the offender, who reached for it with his gun hand, and the victim began to struggle with the man.
During the struggle, the victim yelled for help and someone in the area called police. At one point the gun went off, but nobody was hit. The victim managed to get the gun from his assailant, pick up a brick and hit on the head the assailant, whom police identified as Dykes.
Dykes is charged with attempted armed robbery, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and having a firearm without firearm identification.
All four suspects are scheduled to appear March 11 at Circuit Court in Skokie.
