- Credibility:
WEST TOWN — A Lawndale man was arrested early Saturday just blocks from where police say he robbed and tried to rape a woman near a West Town school.
Dennis Jackson was arrested around 6:25 a.m. Saturday in the 400 block of North Oakley Boulevard, police said.
He was charged with this week’s attempted rape in West Town, as well as with a string of armed robberies.
According to police, officers from the department’s Area Central Robbery and Burglary tactical team “approached Jackson while he was riding a bicycle after he matched the description of the offender wanted in numerous armed robberies and an attempted criminal sexual assault” that had occurred in the Near West District (12th).
Jackson was later “positively identified” as the man responsible for the recent robberies and the attempted rape, police said.
Jackson, 22, of the 1500 block of South Sawyer Avenue, was ordered held without bond during a hearing on Sunday.
He’s charged with three felony counts of armed robbery with a firearm, one felony count of attempted armed robbery with a firearm, one felony count of aggravated kidnapping, one felony count of attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
He was also charged with misdemeanor theft because he was riding a stolen bike, police said.
Early Thursday, a woman walking to work was robbed at gunpoint and forced to undress by her attacker in the 500 block of North Leavitt.
The proximity of the incident to nearby Ellen Mitchell elementary school had the entire school community “on high alert,” a source from the school said.
