CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer single-handedly arrested five people who robbed a bike messenger on a Blue Line train on the Near West Side Monday morning, police said.
The robbers, four males and one female, approached the 50-year-old bicycle messenger on a Blue Line train near the 400 block of South Clinton Street about 6:15 a.m., said Officer John Mirabelli, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
They tried to take the bike away from the man, but he resisted, Mirabelli said, so the five settled for the messenger's bag.
The group ran off the train with the bag as the messenger chased after them, Mirabelli said. Police were called, and a single squad car went to the scene.
The messenger flagged down the police car of a 44-year-old officer, a 17-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, Mirabelli said.
The officer rounded up three near Van Buren Street and Wacker Drive and arrested the other two at Washington Street and Wabash Avenue. Arrested were a 19-year-old man, a 20-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl and two "individuals" in women's clothing who are 17 and 19, Mirabelli said.
None of the suspects has been formally charged.