An 18 year old sophomore student at Loyola University was taken to the police by his own mother after she recognized him as the man police were seeking for the Chicago train robbery. Suspect Zion Brown allegedly stole about $100 in cash at gunpoint at the Metra train conductor on Tuesday afternoon.
According to Fox News, the police shared a shot of the station security camera, which caught the perpetrator glancing at it. When Brown's mother saw the picture shared by the authorities, she immediately recognized him as her son and reportedly dragged him to the police in Calumet City to turn himself in.
To find the perpetrator of the Chicago train robbery, police initially asked the public for help in identifying Brown, who was seen in two surveillance photos at the Van Buren Street Station in downtown Chicago. At around 2:17 p.m. when the train pulled into the station, Brown, who was a passenger, "produced a black semi-automatic handgun and announced a robbery," police said. The suspect then stole the conductor's cash and fled on foot.
At Brown's bond hearing, details of his mother turning him over to the authorities were revealed. He was represented by a private defense attorney, who argued that the sophomore university student was hungry and was looking for something to eat. Brown said that the weapon he used in the Chicago train robbery was actually a BB gun, which he disposed of after the crime by tossing into a dumpster in an alley.
Brown reportedly attended class at the university before the hold up at the train station. His lawyer appealed to the judge to remember her own experiences as a hungry college student in determining his bail.
But Cook County Judge Maryam Ahmad ordered Brown to be held without bail, rejecting the defense attorney's argument and declaring that she would never have thought to rob a person despite being a hungry college kid, Not the Bee reported.
The judge granted the State's request for no bail. Brown is set to appear in court for the Chicago train robbery case on March 4. He has no prior criminal record and is currently an undergraduate at the university majoring in economics.
According to the Daily Mail, the Chicago train robbery is not the first time a parent has turned in their child to the authorities.
In January, a woman turned in her 13 year old son to New York authorities when she recognized him on a wanted poster for an assault case at a Bronx playground. The teen allegedly shot another 13 year old boy in the knee in a Hunts Point Playground during a feud over SnapChat.
Meanwhile in October 2019, a woman in Washington was applauded by her community when she reported her son's troublesome thoughts on his journal to the police. She tipped off authorities when she found out that her son had written in his journal that he intended to attack his school on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
According to police, the boy even detailed the time, firearms and explosives to use, a date of April 20, 2020, as well as plans to kill his mother and her boyfriend.
