Police: Woman knocked to ground in 2nd Lakeview robbery in 3 hours

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are searching for suspects after a mugging and an armed robbery happened within three hours of each other Tuesday night in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.

The latest incident happened in the 2800-block of North Lakewood Avenue at 10 p.m. Police said a 49-year-old woman was approached by a group of men who asked for her purse. When she refused, the men knocked her to the ground, took her purse, and fled in a dark colored sedan. The woman was not injured, police said.

"You feel for the woman, and you also know that that could be my wife, my neighbor's wife. It could be me," said area resident Dan Ballenger.

Three hours earlier, at around 7:10 p.m., a 26-year-old man was on his front steps in the 1300-block of West Nelson Street when he was approached by two men who demanded his property. One man was pointing a gun at him during the altercation, the victim said. The offenders fled in a dark colored SUV, police said.

"We walk down this street every single day, essentially, and now you don't feel safe at seven, eight o'clock in the evening," said Push Singh, a man who lives in the area.

Ballenger said he has been attending neighborhood crime meetings after sensing a change a year and a half ago in the neighborhood.

"Taking out the trash to the alley, you're concerned," said Ballenger. "You want to be safe. We were actually putting up extra lights along our gangway."

Police said it is unclear if the two robberies are related.