5-Nov-18 – Undercover police made three arrests in four hours a week ago in an operation targeting robbers who prey on River North bar patrons.

However, in an alley where multiple undercover officers were positioned, a man was shot in the leg by two suspects who briefly got away.

It is the same alley in which a man was stabbed to death on March 23.

Around midnight on the evening of October 27, a group of detectives, tactical officers, and undercover police from Chicago Police Department’s intelligence unit arrived in River North with the goal of taking down robbers in the neighborhood’s bustling nightlife area.

Blended into their surroundings, two covert officers saw a robbery in progress and followed 18-year-old Kavatish Wallace (left) as he escorted a 26-year-old man from Naperville into an ATM vestibule. According to police records, no weapon was displayed but Wallace was “holding up [the] victim to put [a] PIN into the ATM.”

When the ATM dispensed money, the victim dropped it onto the floor. Wallace reportedly picked it up and walked out of the vestibule but was arrested in the 100 block of West Illinois Street by uniformed officers who recovered the victim’s credit cards and mobile phone.

Wallace was charged with theft and was released on a recognizance bond, according to court records.

Around 2:00 a.m., officers on the anti-robbery assignment recognized 38-year-old Frankie Barksdale (right) as she walked in the 400 block of North State Street. Barksdale was wanted for stealing a phone from a man nearby, in the 300 block of West Hubbard Street, on June 18, officers said in their arrest report.

Barksdale was charged with felony theft, her 55th criminal charge, and bail was set at $3,000.

Then, around 4:30 a.m., undercover officers spotted long-time criminal Yolanda Smith in the same stretch of State Street, between Kinzie and Illinois Streets. Police say she was in possession of a mobile phone, Honduran currency, credit cards, and identification that belonged to three different women.

Prosecutors charged her with three counts of theft and she was released on a recognizance bond. According to court records, Smith (left) has been charged in 150 separate criminal cases in Cook County since 1987.

Just as Smith was being arrested, about 20 yards away, a 21-year-old man walked into a dark alley connecting State and Dearborn Streets, where multiple undercover police officers were stationed for the covert operation. As he stood next to an undercover police vehicle in the alley, he was shot in the leg.

He ran out of the alley, turned toward Hubbard Street, then fell to the ground. A police officer applied a tourniquet to slow the bleeding while they waited for an ambulance. The victim was reported in good condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

A man and woman seen running from the alley where taken into custody minutes later at Dearborn & Jackson in the Loop, though no charges have been filed against either of them.

Seconds after the man was shot, a police supervisor was heard on a scanner warning officers to “watch your crossfire” as the alley was said to be full of disguised officers.

On March 23, at about 2:27 a.m., a man from Park Ridge, northwest of Chicago, was stabbed in the neck while cutting through the alley. Miguel Beedle was CEO of a software company located in Lake County. Gino Basset (right), age 56, was charged with first-degree murder.