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player ready...Two Walgreens staffers are being credited with stopping a man armed with a loaded gun who was trying to rob the store late Friday in the West Town community, according to police.
Police said the suspect, Benjamin H. Strong, 21, of the 3700 block of North Narragansett Avenue in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood, has been charged with attempted armed robbery with a firearm, police said.
Bail was set at $275,000 for Strong who appeared in bond court today. In court, officials said Strong has a three month old son and lives with his girlfriend and his mother.
The incident happened late Friday night as the Walgreens, in the 2400 block of West North Avenue, was closing, police said.
The first responding officers saw one of the victims, a male staffer who had been pistol-whipped by Strong, standing outside the store’s doors with blood “streaming from his face,” according to a police report, which stated the worker yelled at police: “He’s robbing us with a gun, he’s still inside.”
Inside, officers found the store manager “on top” of Strong, who officers took into custody at 12:17 a.m. Saturday. A 9 mm handgun loaded with two live rounds was recovered, officials said in court.
The bloodied staffer told officers that Strong entered the store through a storage or employee room door and hit him in the head with the gun and demanded that he open the door to the manager’s office, the report said.
Strong announced a robbery as he pointed the loaded gun at a manager who was inside the office but the two staffers began struggling with Strong, the report said.
Once the manager got the best of Strong, the other worker was able to call 911 and leave the store to get help, the report said.
Police learned a third staffer who saw the entire incident was inside the storage area, hiding, the report said.
The injured staffer, who suffered a two to three inch cut to his forehead, was released from Norwegian-American Hospital after he received five stitches, the report said.
Strong has two prior misdemeanor convictions, for cannabis possession and property damage, officials said.
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