Police arrest four in Aurora armed robberies

Authorities have four suspects in custody each facing two counts of aggravated battery after four nighttime armed robberies on the Aurora's west side.

Devante L. Merrick, 18, of the 600 block of Old Indian Trail Road, Aurora; Deandre O. Mitchell, 18, of the 1500 block of Hollycrest Avenue, Aurora; Marcus C. Sanders, 20, of the 200 block of Liszka Lane, Oswego; and Maurice J. Williamson, 17, of the 1300 block of South Glen Circle, Aurora, were arrested at 9:10 p.m. Sept. 29 by officers responding to a call about a robbery in the 1400 block of Beau Ridge Drive.

Officers found all four were in a black SUV that was observed leaving the scene of the Beau Ridge incident, in which police said Mitchell and Williamson approached a 19-year-old man, a 27-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman and demanded their valuables at gunpoint.

Mitchell and Williamson also were charged in connection with three other armed robberies, all of which took place Sept. 22, police said.

Mitchell robbed at gunpoint a 34-year-old man who had just left a vehicle about 9:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Golden Oaks Parkway, according to police.

Williamson committed two robberies Sept. 22, authorities allege. In the first incident, police say he approached a 41-year-old man in a parking lot about 9:55 p.m. in the 1800 block of Lilac Lane, striking the man on the head with a handgun and stealing his wallet. The victim was treated for minor head wounds. Victims of the other three robberies were not injured, according to police.

In the second incident about 10:15 p.m., Williamson is accused of robbing at knifepoint a 36-year-old man in a car parked in a driveway on the 300 block of North Park Avenue.

Merrick, Mitchell, Sanders and Williamson are being held at the Kane County jail.