CHICAGO — A federal judge sentenced a 32-year-old Chicago man to 11 years in prison for robbing six stores and two banks on the city’s North Side in 2014, officials announced Monday.
Four of the heists committed by Blake Fisher-Bruner were in the Wicker Park area, including two at neighboring branches of North Community Bank (which was renamed to Byline Bank last year).
Fisher-Bruner showed a gun to store employees or bank tellers in several of the robberies, according Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Fisher-Bruner also held up a Wicker Park smoke shop named "Dude, I Forgot" and Bucktown's Chicago Teacher Store, a supply shop for educators.
A FBI spokeswoman was not immediately available to provide a mug shot is for Fisher-Bruner. Online records show that Fisher-Bruner is one of 591 inmates incarcerated at federal prison MCC Chicago, 71 W. Van Buren St.
During the armed robbery of the Chicago Teacher Store at 1855 N. Milwaukee Ave. on May 27, 2014, Fisher-Bruner ordered a cashier and a customer to the floor at gunpoint before stealing cash, a children’s book and a marker, authorities said.
In another of the robberies — of North Community Bank at 1555 N. Damen Ave. on June 23, 2014 — Fisher-Bruner threatened to shoot the tellers if they did not comply with his demands.
Fisher-Bruner was arrested by Chicago Police on July 6, 2014, while sitting in a vehicle with a loaded firearm in his pocket.
Fisher-Bruner pleaded guilty in March to three counts of bank robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee imposed Fisher-Bruner's 132-month sentence Friday in federal court in Chicago. The Chicago Police Department "provided valuable assistance" in the case, Fardon said.
“The defendant committed very serious, violent acts,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher V. Parente argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Robberies of any kind, but especially armed robberies, are very serious crimes that terrorize the victims who are standing at the other end of the defendant’s firearm.”
According to his plea agreement, Fisher-Bruner served as a lookout in the first robbery while his girlfriend robbed the North Community Bank branch on April 18, 2014.
His girlfriend, Nakesha Scott, 24, of Joliet, was previously convicted in the case. Scott pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery and was sentenced last year to 30 months in prison.
The other robberies committed by Fisher-Bruner include:
May 15, 2014: North Community Bank, 1600 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago.
May 30, 2014: Ember Smoke Shop store, 2827 W. Belden Ave., in Chicago.
June 8, 2014: 7-Eleven store, 1658 N. Milwaukee Ave., in Chicago.
June 8, 2014: Egor’s Dungeon store, 900 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago.
June 14, 2014: MS News store, 2445 N. Clark St., in Chicago.
June 21, 2014: Dude I Forgot store, 1400 N. Milwaukee Ave., in Chicago
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