Mom Carrying Baby Shoved To Ground By Teenage Mugger: Cops

OAK LAWN, IL -- An Oak Lawn teen was arrested walking through the streets of Chicago Ridge, moments after police said he knocked a woman and her baby to the ground snatching her purse. Armando Jimenez-Cruz, 18, appeared before Cook County Judge Donald Havis on felony counts of aggravated battery and robbery. The prosecutor said it was his first arrest.

According to the charges, around 11:36 a.m. Sept. 5, Chicago Ridge police fielded numerous 911 calls regarding a purse snatching that had just occurred in the Marshall’s parking lot at the Chicago Ridge Commons Shopping Center. A teen wearing a baseball cap, gray shirt and khaki pants approached a 29-year-old woman as she was putting her 1-year-old son into her vehicle. The prosecutor said the teen, later identified as Jimenez-Cruz, knocked the mother and her child to the ground and grabbed her purse containing approximately $270 cash.

Jimenez-Cruz is said to have fled the parking lot. Moments after the alleged theft, Chicago Ridge police located a suspect resembling Jimenez-Cruz walking in the area of 99th Street and Ridgeland Avenue. The mom was unsure in her identification of Jimenez-Cruz, but another witness who saw his face positively identified him as the alleged purse snatcher, the prosecutor said. Another witness stepped forward with the woman’s discarded black handbag. Police said Jimenez-Cruz was found with $274 cash.

The mother and 1-year-old boy suffered minor scrapes. They refused medical treatment. Jimenez-Cruz was brought to the Chicago Ridge police station. Police said he refused to make any statements. Bail was set at $50,000. The judge ordered Jimenez-Cruz not to contact the mother or witnesses. Jimenez-Cruz is due back in court Oct. 3 in Bridgeview.