A day after a Nov. 16 robbery, in which police said a woman’s purse was violently taken from her as she walked down an Oak Park street at around 9 a.m., police charged a Hillside man in connection with the incident.
Sidney I. Harrington, 25, of the 4900 block of Cypress Drive, Hillside, was charged Nov. 17 with robbery, aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon, manufacturing and delivery of cocaine, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The woman was walking near the 200 block of South Austin Boulevard shortly before 9 a.m. when police said Harrington approached her from behind. He asked for her phone, and when she refused, he grabbed her purse straps, causing her to fall to the ground, and began dragging her down the street, according to Cmdr. LaDon Reynolds of the Oak Park Police Department.
As she was being dragged, another woman driving through the intersection of South Austin and West Jackson Boulevard saw what was happening and slowed down. She rolled down her window and yelled at Harrington to stop, police said.
“When she yelled at him, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at her,” Reynolds said.
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Harrington then took off on foot on northbound Austin with the woman’s purse, according to police. As he ran, the witness later told police, she saw a white object fall out of his pocket. After Harrington was gone, the woman who saw what happened circled back in her vehicle to check on the victim, who had minor injuries, according to Reynolds.
A description of Harrington led police to the 4300 block of West Gladys Avenue in Chicago, where he was arrested the next day, police said. Police said he had 64 grams of cocaine in his possession when he was arrested.
The purse has not been recovered, Reynolds said.
Harrington was being held on $250,000 bond and was still in jail as of Saturday morning, according to Sophia Ansari, spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.