Chicago Prosecutors: Repeat Offender, Acting as ‘Security Guard’, Assaulted Woman
Chicago – A prosecutor condensed the state’s account of Larenzo Bailey’s life into one phrase as they finished a petition requesting a court to hold him in custody on a new Class X firearms charge. It’s one that LinkedIn most likely won’t display.
The petition stated, “He has been a lifelong resident of Cook County and has been contributing to society through drug sales and guns for decades.” Bailey’s “extensive felony record for gun crimes and drugs spanning decades” was another description provided by the prosecution.
Thus, it would come as a surprise to some readers to hear that on Monday night in the 3000 block of West Roosevelt, Chicago police detained Bailey, who was purportedly employed as “armed security” for a liquor store.
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According to a CPD complaint, Bailey physically threw one of the store’s patrons, a 37-year-old woman, outside, forcing her to tumble to the ground. She then contacted the police.
Bailey reportedly hit her in the face while she was still on the ground, took out a revolver, and pointed it at her.
Bailey was seen by the police outside the booze store with an unusual ski mask and a “security” vest. He flailed his arms and pulled away when they patted him down, according to the officers’ report.
Authorities added that following an “emergency takedown” of Bailey, they discovered a loaded handgun with an elongated magazine of ammo inside his vest.
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Judge Susana Ortiz was informed by the prosecution that Bailey had twice been found guilty of assaulting police officers, selling drugs in parks or schools, and being a criminal in possession of a firearm. He was accused of being a Class X armed habitual criminal and of owning a machine gun in 2020, according to court documents, but the prosecution closed the case in 2022.
Along with minor counts of aggravated assault, battery, and resisting police, he is now facing accusations of being a Class X armed habitual criminal once more.
The detention petition was approved by Ortiz.
Legislators in Illinois enacted a bill a few days prior to Bailey’s arrest that would rename the offense from “armed habitual criminal” to “persistent unlawful possession of a weapon.” It seems that they think the label of “armed habitual criminal” is harming the reputations of those convicted of such crimes.
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, whose district includes Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park, stated, “It really comes out of the reentry space where people who don’t live in this world as we do [as state legislators] see the title of the offense and think it means something much more nefarious than it does mean.”