Robbery suspect charged after police chase on interstate

A man was charged with committing an armed robbery at a South Side business Saturday, after a high-speed chase that led police close to the Wisconsin border via an interstate highway.

On Saturday shortly before 5:30 p.m., police responded to a retail establishment in the 8600 block of South Cicero Avenue where a man had entered and demanded an employee give him money from the cash register. The employee complied, according to police, after which the suspect shot at the ceiling and fled. No injuries were reported.

Police then pursued the suspect until he was taken into custody about two hours later at 7:25 p.m. in the southbound lanes of I-94 in Gurnee.

Norbert Thigpen, 36, of the 8400 block of South Mulligan Avenue in Burbank — just west of Chicago’s Ashburn neighborhood, where the robbery took place — was charged Sunday with two felony counts of armed robbery and discharge of a firearm and one felony count of aggravated fleeing a police officer.

Thigpen’s detention hearing will be Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

adperez@chicagotribune.com