— Man who robbed teen of shoes on Blue Line was wearing ankle monitor for CTA stabbing: prosecutors —
An 18-year-old and a 20-year-old allegedly robbed a 17-year-old of his shoes on a Blue Line train while one of them wore an ankle monitor during juvenile parole for an earlier CTA stabbing, officials said.
Chicago police identified Zaden Miller and Denzel Williams as the suspects after releasing surveillance images that members of the public recognized and reported to CPD.
The teen sat in the back of a train car at the UIC-Halsted station around 5:30 p.m. on August 30 when Miller and Williams approached him, according to a detention filing. Miller allegedly told the teen he wanted to fight him, demanded his shoes, and threatened to shoot and beat him if he refused, claiming he had a gun. Williams, meanwhile, kept the victim from standing up and leaving until he handed over the shoes, the filing said.
About an hour later, the boy went to a police station to report the robbery and gave officers descriptions of the men. Surveillance footage showed Miller, who wore an ankle monitor, and Williams on the Blue Line platform around 5:30 p.m. and again around 5:50 p.m., according to the filing.
Police released three of those images to the media, showing one of the robbers changed clothes between photos. In one image, he wears a ski mask, a long-sleeve black shirt, long black pants, and brown work boots. In the other, he wears a short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and white gym shoes while he carries a ski mask and his accomplice carries his boots and other clothes.
After CPD released the images, two employees at a shelter called police and identified Williams as a current resident, prosecutors said. Cops arrested Williams on an unrelated burglary warrant, and the victim later identified Williams in a photo lineup, according to the detention filing.
During an interview with police, Williams named Miller as his alleged accomplice and gave CPD Miller’s birthday and address, the filing said. Williams told cops he warned Miller against committing the robbery because Williams wasn’t wearing a mask and expected to be recognized. He denied robbing or hurting anyone and said Miller pressured him into participating, according to the filing.
A security guard at a North Side service agency and school also saw the CPD images and contacted police to identify Miller as the second robber. After his arrest, Miller told police he had sent the teen $150 for the shoes but never received them. Miller said he took the shoes because the teen, whom he claimed to know as “Jonathan” from school, had not handed them over.
Records show the teen’s name isn’t Jonathan or anything close to it. However, the boy did identify the shoes Miller wore in the second surveillance photo CPD released as the shoes taken during the robbery.
Miller and Williams remain detained while awaiting trial on robbery charges following separate detention hearings.
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