On January 13th and 14th, four armed robberies occurred in the Joliet area. Locations hit were Family Dollar at 1224 Richards Street, Consumers Liquor at 1134 Plainfield Road, La Loma Grocery Store at 414 Walnut Street, and Ingalls Park Liquors at 1822 East Washington Street. In response to the armed robberies, detectives from both the Joliet Police Department and the Will County Sheriff’s Office worked together to compare information. It was discovered that in each robbery, the suspect vehicle was the same black Dodge Charger. A felony vehicle notification alert was placed on the suspected vehicle.
On 01/22/12 at approximately 2:30 am, Deputy Beckman from the Will County Sheriff’s Office located and stopped the vehicle near Gougar Road and US Route 30. Joliet detectives responded to the traffic stop and assisted in the preliminary investigation of the vehicle. Further investigation showed the suspected local offenders were working with offenders from the Chicagoland area and may have conducted a number of other robberies in Chicago. Joliet and Will County detectives then contacted Chicago detectives and learned that a known associate of one of the suspects was recently arrested while committing an armed robbery in Chicago.
The detectives worked together to solidify the evidence against the offenders and as a result, they were successful in arresting two individuals: Elijah Manuel of Joliet and Marcus Williams of Chicago. Williams was arrested on
01/25/12 by Joliet Police detectives and Chicago Police tactical officers on a 1 million dollar warrant. The warrant included charges for seven counts of armed robbery, five counts of aggravated robbery, one count of attempted robbery, one count of attempted aggravated robbery, and one count of aggravated battery. Williams confessed to being involved in the four robberies in the Joliet area.
The investigation will continue regarding the involvement of other offenders.
Chief Trafton commends the officers and detectives involved in these cases for working together and ultimately arresting several serial robbers. Congratulations on a job well done!