Migrant who skipped out on Chicago gun case fled to Denver, robbed jewelry store with Venezuelan street gang: report

CHICAGO — A Venezuelan migrant featured in a CWBChicago story concerning the efficiency of our metropolis’s ShotSpotter system was a part of an armed Venezuelan road gang that violently robbed a Denver jewellery retailer, the New York Put up reviews.

As we instructed you in our Might 21 story, Jan Torres-Roman, 21, failed to look in courtroom on Might 13 after being launched by Prepare dinner County Choose David Kelly. Torres-Roman skipped city after his arrest and ended up within the Mile Excessive Metropolis with seven different members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, in line with the Put up’s report. Right here’s the inside track:

Prepare dinner County prosecutors charged Torres-Roman with felony illegal use of a weapon after Chicago cops responded to a ShotSpotter alert within the 5100 block of South Indiana on Might 5.

When officers arrived, a fuel station safety guard instructed them he heard gunfire and noticed Torres-Roman, who was nonetheless standing close by, working from the realm of the gunshots whereas holding a gun, in line with a CPD report.

The report stated safety footage confirmed three males stroll away from a parked automotive, adopted moments later by Torres-Roman working again to the automobile whereas gripping his waist. The report acknowledged that he paced forwards and backwards, positioned the gun—reportedly stolen from Albuquerque—below the automotive’s passenger seat, and dumped a field containing 43 rounds of ammunition below a rubbish bag within the fuel station lot.

Prosecutors didn’t ask Choose Kelly to detain Torres-Roman as both a menace to public security or a willful flight threat, so the choose minimize him unfastened and instructed him to indicate up for courtroom on Might 13. Torres-Roman has not been seen since. At the least not by regulation enforcement officers round right here.

However authorities in different elements of the nation haven’t been so lucky.

On June 24, eight armed males raided the family-operated Joyeria El Ruby jewellery retailer in Denver. A number of of the lads hopped the counter and stuffed the shop’s jewellery into luggage whereas one other held prospects on the ground at gunpoint, KDVR reported.

“They pinned my mother to the ground and hit her behind the pinnacle thrice with a gun, then they hit my cousin,” one of many homeowners instructed the outlet.

The household posted movies of the theft. Watch:

Federal authorities arrested Torres-Roman in Las Cruces, NM, inside days and returned him to Denver to face costs of tried first-degree homicide and tried aggravated theft, the NY Put up reviews. He’s charged in Colorado as Jean Torres-Roman however was charged in Chicago as “Jan.”

The Put up on Friday reported that Torres-Roman entered america illegally in September 2023. Federal immigration authorities “lodged a detainer, informing native regulation enforcement that it deliberate to take him into custody,” the Put up reported, however Torres-Roman was launched by officers right here.

Torres-Roman is a “member of Venezuela’s infamous Tren de Aragua gang,” the Put up reported Friday. President Joe Biden’s administration pegged the gang as a transnational prison group and put out a $12 million bounty on its leaders.

Federal authorities have opened greater than 100 investigations associated to the gang, in line with NBC.

Right here at residence, on June 12, a Prepare dinner County Circuit Court docket pretrial providers supervisor knowledgeable Choose Lindsay Big that he was “kindly asking” the choose to “instruct” Torres-Roman to contact his pretrial providers officer. Big issued an arrest warrant as a substitute, one month after Torres-Roman failed to look.

Unique reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click on right here to help our work.