Five Chicago residents charged with East Dundee armed robbery
Authorities have charged five Chicago residents - three 18-year-olds and two juveniles - with the armed robbery of a Thorntons gas station early Monday in East Dundee.
The five also are suspected in two similar gas station robberies in Belvidere and Hampshire earlier that night, police said.
East Dundee Police Chief Terry Mee said authorities received a call at 1:27 a.m. Monday that the gas station, at 100 Dundee Ave. had been robbed.
Mee said three people initially walked into the gas station. "They were followed by a fourth, he displays a handgun to the clerk and then they take (money) and Lotto scratch-off tickets and the clerk's cellphone."
Mee said the four people left in a car being driven by the fifth person. Earlier that night, authorities radioed an alert after two similar robberies of Speedway gas stations in Belvidere and Hampshire, Mee said.
An Illinois State Trooper at about 2:30 a.m. pulled over a 2007 Chevy Impala near the River Road oasis on Interstate 90 near Rosemont, Mee said. The trooper noticed a number of items that could have been related to the previous three robberies in plain view - a bunch of scratch-off tickets and a coin machine that dispenses change as part of a cash register, Mee said.
The trooper arrested all five people and eventually they were brought to East Dundee where they were charged with armed robbery with a firearm and felony theft, said Mee, adding police recovered a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun from the car.
The three men charged and being held at the Kane County jail are: Damarcus D. Gilmore, 18, of the 8200 block of South Ridgeland Avenue; Brian D. Ormond, 18, of the 12200 block of South Throop Street; and Santrell D. Tamir, 18, of the 7400 block of Champlain Avenue, according to police and court records.
Bail for Ormond and Tamir was set at $100,000. Bail for Gilmore, who authorities believe was the getaway driver, is $150,000.
The most severe charge of armed robbery carries a penalty of six to 30 years in prison with no chance of probation.
Ormond is due in court Friday, while Gilmore and Tamir are due in court May 24 and June 7, respectively.
The two juveniles, both 17, were taken to the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center, Mee said.
It was not immediately clear if charges have been filed in the other two robberies. Belvidere police did not immediately return a message.