A Chicago man wanted for robbing a Super 8 hotel in Woodstock at gunpoint and battering the front desk clerk has been taken into custody, police said.
Trent J. Keegan, 27, of the 4200 block of North Hazel Street in Chicago, is charged with armed violence, armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, theft, burglary, battery causing bodily harm and two counts of aggravated assault.
Court documents allege that Keegan entered the Super 8 hotel, located at 1220 Davis Road in Woodstock, around 10:30 p.m. on May 17, 2020, while armed with a pistol.
Keegan “verbally walked through the armed robbery with himself while waiting for an employee at the front desk,” a police detective said in a criminal complaint.
When the staff member walked to the front desk, Keegan attempted to remove his pistol from his front pocket but it got stuck, the complaint said.
Keegan, who was wearing a mask, safety glasses and a bandana to hide his identity, walked around the corner away from the employee.
He then walked back to the front lobby and entered the employee area behind the front counter while displaying his gun.
Keegan grabbed the employee’s wrist and pulled it to the cash register as he demanded the employee to open it, the complaint said.
The employee handed Keegan approximately $1,000 cash and handed it to the suspect. Keegan fled the business by running out of a hallway door.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Department assisted in the investigation by providing their canine unit to track the suspect, according to Woodstock Police Chief John Lieb.
A search warrant was executed on a Woodstock residence that produced evidence in the case, Lieb said.
With the assistance of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team and the Lake in the Hills Police Department, an additional search warrant was executed on a residence in Lake in the Hills which produced further evidence.
Lieb said that a lengthy investigation eventually led to the identification of Keegan and an arrest warrant was issued on May 26.
The Chicago Police Department’s Fugitive Apprehension Team took Keegan into custody on Tuesday.
Keegan, who is a convicted felon, was previously found guilty of a robbery at a Super 8 hotel in Crystal Lake in 2015.
In that case, Keegan served 180 days in jail and was ordered to undergo drug and alcohol treatment along with three years of probation.
Keegan remains held in the Cook County Jail pending transport back to McHenry County.