A series of bold, early-morning armed robberies from the West Loop to the United Center have police on the hunt this Fourth of July weekend, searching for a group of masked men believed to be behind a weeks-long string of violent holdups.
The latest crime sprees began around 7 a.m. Thursday, July 3, in the 1400 block of West Carroll Avenue in West Town. Police say three masked men jumped out of a sedan and pistol-whipped a woman twice in the head before robbing her at gunpoint. They made off with her bag and phone, fleeing in the vehicle.
Just over three hours later, around 10:12 a.m., two people were robbed inside a parking garage at Rush University Medical Center in the 1500 block of West Harrison Street. According to a police report, two men dressed entirely in black and armed with guns confronted the victims on the ground floor of the garage, taking a Coach bag and a maroon backpack before fleeing in the vehicle…