LINCOLN PARK — Police are investigating a string of armed robberies of convenience stores and gas stations in Lincoln Park and the surrounding areas.
During the early morning hours Friday, offenders struck two Lincoln Park shops within 10 minutes of each other, according to police.
At 2:23 a.m. three masked offenders entered the Circle K/Shell gas station at 1100 W. Diversey and robbed the store at gunpoint. The offenders left with an unknown amount of cash. No one was injured, police said.
Shortly after, at 2:29 a.m., two armed men entered a 7-Eleven at the corner of Lincoln and Wrightwood Avenues and announced a robbery, according to Chicago Police officer Jose Estrada.
As the offenders entered the store, the clerk ran to a back room and called police.
The armed men fled without any goods, police said.
Then in River West less than 30 minutes after the Lincoln Park incidents, gunmen robbed a 7-Eleven at 504 N. Halsted St, leaving two store clerks injured. The offenders pistol-whipped one clerk and cut another with a box cutter, according to police.
A 24-year-old male employee who was struck in the head with a handgun was in stable condition at Stroger Hospital. A 23-year-old male received a cut to his hand and was treated at the scene.
Four offenders left the scene in a vehicle and fled the vehicle near Grand and Cicero avenues, according to police. Officers caught a man and woman, but two of the suspects escaped, police said.
The investigation is ongoing and charges are pending against the two suspects who were arrested, police said.
Police said it has yet to be determined if the robberies are connected.
"However, given the similar methods of operation, the methods that were used to rob, detectives are investigating a possible link," Estrada said.
The incidents came after robberies in Lincoln Park earlier this week.
Early Wednesday morning, around the same time, robbers struck at two separate locations in Lincoln Park.
At about 2:20 a.m. two men armed with guns entered a 7-Eleven at 1348 W. Fullerton Ave., announced the robbery and fled with an unknown amount of cash. No one was injured in that instance, according to police.
Just minutes earlier, a 7-Eleven at 2710 N. Lincoln Ave. was also robbed at gunpoint by two men at 2:15 a.m.
It is still under investigation whether those crimes were connected.
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