A Chicago resident with eleven active juvenile cases and under electronic monitoring entered a restaurant on the Near West Side last month. He allegedly threatened an employee with a gun, jumped the counter, and escaped with the cash register. Officers, familiar with him due to past arrests, quickly identified him and went to his residence, where they found him on the front steps.
Jeremiah Tatum Dawson, 18, is facing charges of aggravated robbery for the incident on May 31 at the Subway located at 1651 West Roosevelt Road.
Prosecutors report that Tatum Dawson entered the establishment in a camouflage sweatshirt and facemask. When a 27-year-old cashier asked him to take off the mask, he allegedly refused and threatened, âI have a gun and Iâm gonna shoot you,â while pretending to conceal a weapon in his sweatshirt pocket. The cashier retreated to the back to call 911. Tatum Dawson then leapt over the counter, seized the cash register containing approximately $450, and fled, according to prosecutors.
The robbery was caught on video, and a Chicago Police Department surveillance camera recorded his escape. Officers later discovered the abandoned cash register nearby.
An officer who had previously arrested Tatum Dawson recognized him and knew his residence was about five blocks from the restaurant. When officers arrived at his house, they found him wearing the same camouflage sweatshirt seen on surveillance footage. The cashier later confirmed his identity as the robber.
Court records indicate that Tatum Dawson was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time. After being taken out of a squad car, he reportedly admitted to the crime, saying something like âI know I robbed.â Prosecutors claim he confessed to taking the register, breaking it open, and taking the money, but said the cash flew out of his pocket as he ran home.
His eleven pending juvenile cases, all filed this year, consist of seven felonies: two thefts in February, three aggravated robberies in March, and a criminal damage and theft in April. Misdemeanors include two thefts and a trespassing in February and another trespassing in March.
His juvenile convictions include two thefts, two trespass to vehicles, possession of a stolen vehicle, and a domestic battery with strangulation. This last conviction resulted in a three-year juvenile detention sentence in November 2025, according to prosecutors.
Apart from the Subway robbery, court records reveal that Tatum Dawson is also charged with stealing the cash drawer from a Walgreens at 1601 North Wells Street in Old Town on March 14. Judge Ankur Srivastava has approved the state’s request to detain him.
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