Chicago police arrested one man and are looking for two more they say robbed a group of University of Illinois students and shot three of them as they left a party Feb. 11 on the West Side.
The students were at a home in the 2400 block of West Harrison Street for a college party that had been advertised on fliers posted around the area, Cmdr. Steve Peterson said.
As nine students in separate groups left the party through a back door of the home, three men waiting in an alcove and armed with at least one gun confronted them, Peterson said.
The men allegedly beat several students with a gun and shot three of them, hitting them in the leg, groin or buttocks, he said.
Trumaine Beck, 20, of the 3100 block of West Douglas Boulevard, Chicago, was charged with six counts of armed robbery, four counts of aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and two counts of attempted robbery, Peterson said. He was ordered held Sunday in lieu of $350,000 bail.
Beck and the other two suspects heard about the party and decided to stake it out to rob the students, Peterson said.
“Apparently, they saw the fliers, looked at the location and picked a spot where they would be off the street in a somewhat secluded location,” he said.
Police learned that one of the robbers had the nickname “Crip,” Peterson said. Police later matched that nickname to Beck, he said.
Beck was taken into custody, and in the course of an interview, implicated himself and two others, Peterson said.
Police are not releasing the other suspects’ names because no warrants have been issued, Peterson said.
Cook County Assistant State’s Atty. Rita Moran said Beck told police he and the other men decided that night they wanted to “rob some white kids.”
When the first two victims came out of the residence, the robbers ordered them into an alley, where they searched them and took money, she said. Four other students came out, and the robbers did the same, Moran said.
When two girls came out and were attacked, they screamed, making Beck nervous, Moran said.
That’s when Beck allegedly shot at the group, hitting three of the men, she said.
Peterson said all the victims were forced to the ground.
Two 19-year-old twin brothers and an 18-year-old man were wounded, he said. All three were treated in local hospitals and released, he said.
Police recovered a weapon, and Beck was identified in a lineup, Peterson said.
