Berwyn Police Blotter
Suspects in Berwyn, Oak Park armed robberies arrested on felony charges
May 9, 2008, 3:27 AM
A 25-year old Indiana man and a 22-year-old Berwyn woman told police they were robbed while they sat in the man’s parked black BMW in the 2200 block of Oak Park. They said someone shattered the front passenger window with a rock, then a man dressed in all black and wearing a black mask opened the driver’s door and put a gun in the man’s face, saying, “Where’s her purse, give me her purse!” Two other armed male offenders yelled at the victims, who gave up the requested items; the woman’s purse contained, among other things, a pink cell phone. The robbers fled the scene. Soon after the robbery, police stopped a green Ford SUV in the 6600 block of Cermak, after the vehicle failed to signal a left turn. In addition, the officer who made the stop noticed that as he approached in his squad car, the two passengers ducked as if hiding from him.
The officer spoke to the driver, 21-year-old Charles E. Terrell of Maywood. The officer noticed three men in the SUV were all in dark clothing. Terrell had shrubbery stuck in the crotch of his pants. When asked about it, Terrell reportedly said, “this is nothing” and tried to brush it away, but had to pull because the shrubbery was stuck in his zipper. All three men were asked to get out of the SUV, and Terrell gave permission for police to search it.
A search recovered a black ski mask in the center console. The dashboard appeared loose and partly separated around the stereo. When officers pulled on the loose portion, it came away to reveal several handguns and a box of .45 caliber Magtech ammunition stuffed inside. All three men were arrested.
In the left turn lane, where the SUV had been before getting pulled over, several credit cards lay on the street. Two of them were in the name of the male victim robbed in the BMW; that victim later positively identified one of the weapons as the one used to rob him. It was a Czech semiautomatic blue steel 9MM handgun, loaded. The other guns police recovered were a Llama 9MM semiautomatic handgun, and a Smith & Wesson SW40F. All three guns were loaded. Other items recovered from the SUV included credit and ID cards from several people; a black cell phone; a pink cell phone; a black hoodie; a black baseball cap with “NY” on it; and a black baseball cap with an orange “Houston Astros” star. The woman robbed in the BMW positively identified the pink phone as the one taken from her at gunpoint.
After being read his rights, Terrell told police he was driving his mother’s vehicle in the area of Roosevelt and Harlem and looking for girls. He said the three guns were his, telling officers he bought them from what he termed “some white dude” he met while working at Schaumburg temporary employment agency. He told them he stores the guns in the dashboard of his mother’s vehicle, knew nothing of a robbery and did not know how the victim’s pink cell phone got there.
After being read his rights, passenger Joshua Felton, 19, of Maywood, denied participating in any robbery. He said he acquired the pink phone for $5 from a man in the street by a gas station thirty minutes earlier.
The second passenger, Christian Arrington, 23, of the 2100 block of west 53rd, Chicago, made a statement after he was read his rights, in which he told officers the driver, Terrell, is his cousin, and referred to Felton as “Jamal.” He denied knowledge of a robbery, guns or cell phone acquisition. A check of Arrington’s name revealed an active no-bond full-extradition warrant for his arrest out of South Taylor County, Texas. Arrington told police he was arrested in Texas for delivery of narcotics in a school zone.
Arrington and Felton both had prior felony convictions. After reviewing the case, the assistant state’s attorney approved the following felony charges for Terrell, Felton and Arrington: two counts each of armed robbery, two counts robbery, two counts theft and three counts unlawful use of a weapon.
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