A second person has been charged a year after armed attackers violently robbed former culinary student Dakotah Earley in Lincoln Park.
The attackers severely injured Earley, who was shot twice in the back and once in the head, at the end of an alleged robbery spree in May 2022. Shortly after the robbery, police arrested Tyshon Brownlee, 20, the person they say shot Earley, but for months were unable to arrest an alleged accomplice.
On Monday, police in Maywood arrested the 18-year-old who police say also attacked Earley, according to the Chicago Police Department.
The unnamed teen was charged with felonies for attempted murder in the first degree, armed robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was 17 years old at the time of the attack, police said. He is scheduled to appear in juvenile court Tuesday.
When prosecutors charged Brownlee last May, they alleged he “basically terrorized” Lakeview and Lincoln Park during a five-hour robbery spree.
Between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., he robbed five people of property such as headphones and wallets, prosecutors said. He pointed a handgun with an extended magazine at victims as he took their things, they alleged.
The alleged attacker hid around a corner and pointed a gun at Earley as he walked by on the sidewalk in the 1300 block of West Webster Avenue around 3 a.m., prosecutors said. A struggle ensued and Brownlee shot Earley three times, according to authorities.
The attack severely injured Earley, who worked at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. He spent four weeks in an intensive care unit and required a partial leg amputation and abdominal and jaw surgeries while hospitalized for months.
In a lawsuit he filed against Chicago police and Mayor Lori Lightfoot in February, the 24-year-old victim alleged police could have captured the suspects who were engaged in a “spree” of violent robberies before attacking him.
Police should have been able to stop the alleged attackers after spotting a stolen BMW, but implemented the department’s no-chase policy, the lawsuit said. The car was later used as a getaway vehicle in Earley’s shooting, according to the suit.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the Police Department’s nonpursuit policy, Earley was shot in head and back and suffered grave damages that all could have been prevented but for the department’s enactment of its unreasonable nonpursuit policy,” the suit said.
