CHICAGO — Two men have robbed four people — including one who residents say was a pregnant woman — in a series of attacks in Little Italy and Tri-Taylor this week.
At least four people have been robbed in the area since Monday, and police at the University of Illinois at Chicago believe the same group of two men are responsible for the robberies.
A UIC student was robbed at gunpoint at 3 a.m. Wednesday, UIC said in a crime alert.
The student was walking in the 1000 block of South Racine Avenue when a man got out of a black Range Rover and flashed a handgun before taking the student's bag, cash and cell phone, UIC Police said.
The robber then got back into the Range Rover and fled southbound on Racine before turning westbound on Roosevelt Road, UIC said.
On Tuesday, a UIC employee was robbed in a school parking lot, the school said.
The victim was in parking lot 7 at 1100 W. Harrison St. when a man showed a handgun and demanded the victim's purse.
The robber then got into a black Range Rover, thought to be the same one as in the Wednesday robbery, UIC said.
The same men allegedly responsible for the campus attacks are also thought to have robbed two people back-to-back in the same Tri-Taylor block on Monday, according to police.
Both armed robberies took place in the 900 block of South Oakley Boulevard in the 10 p.m. hour, said Officer Nicole Trainor, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.
The first one was at 10:15 p.m., when a 25-year-old man was walking down the sidewalk and a young man walked up from behind with a gun and demanded he get on the ground.
The victim got on the ground and the robber took his iPhone before he and another man ran away, this time on foot, Trainor said.
Ten minutes later, the two returned to the block to rob a 21-year-old woman who was sitting in her car, Trainor said.
One of the men walked up to the car, showed a handgun and told her to get out, Trainor said. The robbers then took her cell phone, wallet and purse before running away.
Residents expressed outrage over the robberies in a neighborhood Facebook group.
A board member of the TriTaylor Community Association, who asked not to be named, said in a Facebook message that the victim in the second attack on Oakley was a pregnant woman, and the robber stuck a gun through her car window, "put the gun to her head" and took the safety off. After taking her possession he demanded her pin number, the board member said.
In each of the incidents, the robbers are described as two black men, between the ages of 18 and 21, according to Chicago and UIC police. Residents said the men were possibly wearing hoodies and had dreadlocks.
UIC said the robbers in the campus incidents "closely match" the suspects in the Tri-Taylor robberies.
A similar car was spotted driving slowly through the neighborhood Wednesday night, residents said.
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