Photo Courtesy of Metra Chicago
A Loyola University Chicago student had his mother twisted. After a surveillance photo of a suspected armed and masked thief aired on the local news, the woman recognized her son and took him straight to the cops.
After seeing her son on the news, the unidentified mother reportedly dragged her son, Zion Brown, 18, to the Calumet City Police Department.
On Feb. 15, Zion allegedly robbed a Metra train conductor at gunpoint at the Van Buren Street platform at Grant Park after 2 p.m. while on his way to Loyola to attend class. The teen confessed to Calumet police that he witnessed the conductor with cash on the platform and decided to stick up the employee.
The student reportedly shoved a handgun (he claimed was a BB gun) into the abdomen of the conductor and demanded money. He shook the Metra employee down for roughly $100 before heading to school. Police distributed two photos of the suspect to the media after the robbery. Zion claimed he tossed the weapon in a dumpster afterward. Police dispersed two pictures of the suspect wearing a black winter coat, hoodie, mask and jeans to the media after the robbery. He was arrested the same evening.
Zion’s attorney attempted to argue that the suspect was a poor college student who just wanted something to eat upon appearing in bond court. Judge Maryam Ahmad was unmoved by the wack defense, stating that she, too, was an impoverished college student but that she never took to robbing people to get by. Ahmad also remanded Zion to jail with no bond.
Zion has no previous record.
According to his LinkedIn, the 18-year-old is a freshman at Loyola University Chicago. Ironically, he was majoring in economics.