Berwyn police still are waiting for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to file charges against a Chicago man captured late Tuesday morning, Sept. 23, in connection with a string of armed robberies in Berwyn and the western suburbs.

Marcus A. Washington, 31, was taken into custody by Berwyn police and members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service’s Great Lakes Task Force at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday after investigators learned he was in Elgin, Berwyn Police Chief William Kushner said.

Washington was picked up on warrants and has charges pending for unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in connection with three reported armed robberies in Berwyn Sept. 10, and possibly as many as seven this month in the western suburbs.

“It’s still up in the air as to whether he will be charged with the robberies,” Kushner said. “So basically we’re in a holding pattern waiting for the state’s attorney’s office.”
Police had been searching for Washington since the sidewalk holdups.

“He was arrested after a brief foot chase,” Kushner said. “There were no shots fired, no Tasers, no problems.”

He is being held on the arrest warrants, Kushner said, with more charges pending.

Three men who each were walking alone in Berwyn Sept. 10 between 9:45 and 10:15 p.m. reported being robbed at gunpoint by three assailants seen fleeing in a silver Dodge Charger, police have said.

In the first, a 70-year-old Berwyn man was robbed at gunpoint while walking alone at 9:45 p.m. at 19th Street and Home Avenue, Kushner said. He had his wallet stolen, along with $220 in cash, his driver’s license and bus pass.

A 48-year-old Berwyn man was robbed at gunpoint at about 10 p.m. on the 1200 block of Grove Avenue. His wallet was stolen, along with $70 in cash, his identification and credit cards, Kushner said. At 10:10 p.m., a 44-year-old Berwyn man walking alone at 13th Street and Wisconsin Avenue was robbed of his cell phone, wallet, credit and debit cards. Kushner said this man didn’t have any cash.

Two men were charged Sept. 12 in connection with the string of robberies. Those already charged are Mark Goree, 21, and Martise Bloodson, 17, both of Chicago.

They were charged with multiple counts of armed robbery for the Berwyn robberies Sept. 10, police said. Goree was charged with an additional count of armed robbery in connection with a robbery in Forest Park.

Other armed robberies were reported in Forest Park, Oak Park, Cicero, River Forest and Chicago. Those cases remain under investigation.

“The three under arrest are implicated in 10 armed robberies in Chicago and others in the suburbs,” Kushner said Wednesday night.

Goree and Bloodson have confessed to seven total robberies between Sept. 1 and 10, he added.

Washington, who goes by the nicknames “Sisco” and “SCO,” was on the run after he escaped arrest by Oak Park police  when Goree and Bloodson were arrested. Washington later ran from Berwyn police after being stopped Sept. 12 on the west side of Chicago.

Police recovered a handgun during the Sept. 12 arrest of Goree and Bloodson. Investigators also obtained a video tape of one of the suspects dumping some of the victims’ personal items in a trash bin, Kushner said.

In a bizarre twist, Washington’s wife reported her silver Dodge Charger was stolen during a car-jacking. Kushner said the woman made the report in Chicago’s 15th District but during questioning by Berwyn police Sept. 11 she recanted and said her husband had her car Sept. 10, Kushner said.

An Oak Park officer later saw a silver Dodge Charger on Westin Avenue in Oak Park with the three men inside, but Kushner said Washington fled before the officer could stop him. However, Goree and Bloodson were stopped and taken to Berwyn’s police department. One gun was found in the car, Kushner said.

But when Berwyn police caught up with Washington later in Chicago, he was in his girlfriend’s green Chevrolet Lumina with her on Homan Avenue and Madison Street, Kushner said. He fled again, but dropped a bag containing keys to the Charger.

“They found a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun in the trunk,” he said.

Kushner said while Washington’s wife continues to cooperate, they will not ask Chicago police to seek charges against her for filing a false police report. He declined to provide her name because she is a witness in the investigation.

Kushner said witnesses and alleged victims of the armed robberies in Chicago, Forest Park, Oak Park, Cicero and River Forest have been coming into the Berwyn Police Department to view Washington, Goree and Bloodson in lineups.