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Man Fights Back After Clothes Stolen During Online Date

By Erica Demarest | February 19, 2015 7:39pm
 Jyrail Gentry, of the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue, was charged with felony armed robbery.
Jyrail Gentry, of the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue, was charged with felony armed robbery.
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Flickr/diversey; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Garfield Park man who was robbed during an online-date set-up Wednesday was able to escape his attackers after one of them slipped on ice, prosecutors said.

When police pulled up to the South Shore robbery site about 10 p.m., they found the 26-year-old victim — wearing nothing but long underwear, a T-shirt and socks — fighting with his alleged robber in the street, prosecutors said.

Temperatures were well below zero.

Three men, including 19-year-old Jyrail Gentry, had stolen the victim's clothes, cash, cell phone and wallet earlier that evening, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said in court Thursday.

It all started when the victim arranged a date through the online dating site Plenty of Fish, prosecutors said.

A woman — whose real name is still unknown — asked the victim to meet her near 79th Street and Kingston Avenue on Wednesday night, prosecutors said. She allegedly brought him to an apartment, and the man became suspicious when he realized there was no electricity or heat.

As the victim turned to leave, Scaduto said, three men who'd been waiting inside the apartment jumped him.

Gentry and two companions, who haven't yet been charged, took the man's belongings, beat him, bound him and threatened him with a BB gun, prosecutors said.

After some time, the man was able to break free and run down the hallway toward a back stairwell, Scaduto said. Gentry followed, and the two began to fight.

It was then that Gentry slipped on ice, sending his BB gun flying, Scaduto said. The two men continued to tussle until police arrived to investigate a neighbor's 911 call.

Gentry, of the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue, was arrested and charged with felony armed robbery. His two companions had already fled the scene when police arrived, prosecutors said.

On Thursday, Cook County Judge Laura Sullivan ordered Gentry held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

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