A Loyola University Chicago college student, accused of robbing an electric train conductor at gunpoint on Tuesday, was arrested after his mother recognized him in local news coverage and took him to the police station, prosecutors say.
As the Metra Electric Train pulled into the Van Buren Station in Downtown Chicago at 2:07 p.m, the suspect, Zion Brown, 18, allegedly brandished a gun and aimed it at the conductor’s stomach, according to CWB Chicago. Brown, a student at Loyola University, allegedly snatched around $100 from the conductor’s pockets and fled, CBS Chicago reports.
“During the investigation, Metra Police determined that the offender originally boarded the train at the 147th Street Station in Harvey,” a Metra press release states.
Prosecutors said Brown’s mother saw media reports of the armed robbery and recognized the suspect as her son, so she took him to the Calumet City Police Department south of Chicago, where he turned himself in, CWB Chicago reports.
He has been charged with armed robbery, according to Loyola University Chicago’s student newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix.
In an interview with police, Brown allegedly said the weapon was a BB gun and that he disposed of it in a dumpster following the incident, the outlet reports. He also allegedly said he saw the conductor handling cash and chose to rob him.
His defense attorney later said Brown was hungry and wanted to get something to eat.
Brown, who does not have a criminal past, attended class at Loyola following the robbery, his attorney stated, per CWB Chicago. The defense attorney “encouraged Judge Maryam Ahmad to reflect on her days as a hungry college student as she weighed the state’s request to have Brown held without bail,” the outlet wrote.
Ahmad admitted that she recalled being hungry during her college days but noted that it never crossed her mind to rob someone for their money at gunpoint. She denied Brown bail.
His next court date is set for March 3, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office’s online records show.
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