A Democratic candidate for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight on Thursday, receiving an unpleasant surprise during an afternoon campaign photo shoot on Chicago’s northwest side. Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were in the middle of taking promotional photos when they were robbed by three men, reports the Chicago Tribune. The incident occurred in the Albany Park neighborhood, where Goldstein is a resident and ward committeeman.
Police say one of the suspects brandished a handgun and demanded the camera equipment and other personal belongings from Goldstein and his team. Nobody was physically harmed in the robbery, that police believe was a crime of opportunity and not a targeted assault.
The campaign was doing the photo shoot on a street in Albany Park to capture an “in-the-neighborhood kind of” image, said Goldstein’s campaign manager Robert Murphy. Team members didn’t expect the hometown vibe to come with a taste of Chicago’s infamous street crime.
“So, as far as the campaign, we are moving forward,” Murphy said, according to the Tribune. “Basically, this was a totally a random act of violence in the community. But when it happens to you, of course, you’re shooken up.”
Though Albany Park is not known as one of Chicago’s more dangerous neighborhoods, it has been the scene of a recent spate of armed robberies similar to Thursday’s incident with the Goldstein team. Two suspects carried out six separate street robberies in late November and early December, flashing handguns and demanding money from the victims, according to a crime alert released by the Chicago Police Department.
The suspects in those incidents were described as African-American males in their early 20s. The three men who robbed Goldstein were also described as being between 20 and 24 years old, but police have not released a detailed description of the suspects.