Chicago police: 1 in custody after series of attacks with baseball bat on Northwest Side
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A woman has been arrested after a series of attacks with a baseball bat on the Northwest Side, Chicago police said Wednesday.
Police believe she is behind at least six separate attacks on the Northwest Side involving, some involving a baseball bat, with at least nine victims.
Police said the woman was pulling up in a white car and attacking innocent people with a bat.
The first attack happened Tuesday morning near Mozart and Sunnyside in Ravenswood Manor. Police said the woman approached two other women and began hitting them with the bat.
Shannon Condon said she was working at home in the time of the attack. She said she saw two women with a stroller when a white car pulled up and a woman got out holding baseball bat.
"And she walked toward the two women with the baby, I thought she must know them or something, or maybe she was playing a joke on them, and then I saw the woman with the bat start hitting the ladies over and over again, and the ladies were screaming," Condon said.
Condon said the woman then got back in her car and drove off. The entire incident happened in a matter of seconds.
Just 10 minutes later, police said a 45-year-old woman was walking with her young child in the 4100-block of North Campbell when a white car pulled up and a woman with a bat got out. Police said the suspect caught up with the woman and her child and began to strike the woman with the bat. The child was not struck. She then fled the area.
Less than half an hour later at noon police said the same woman attacked three women. Police said two women were attacked in the 3000-block of Belle Plaine Avenue and one woman attacked on Cullom Avenue. Police said the victim attacked on Cullom Avenue took herself to Illinois Masonic Hospital where she is reported to be in good condition.
In addition to the six victims on Tuesday, Chicago police said the same woman is suspected in two attacks on Sunday that left three people injured.
Police said around 2:21 p.m. Sunday, a 31-year-old woman and 19-year-old woman were walking in the 4000-block of West Lawrence Avenue when a woman pulled up in a white car, got out and began to batter the women, then fled. The victims declined medical attention.
Then, less than half an hour later just before 3 p.m., the same woman pulled up in a white car alongside a 33-year-old woman in the 4200-block of North Richmond Street, got out of the car and again began to batter the victim. She then fled the scene. This victim also declined medical attention.
"I had hoped Sunday was kind of an isolated event and to learn that there were more attacks today was just really devastating and unsettling," said one of the victims from Sunday, who asked not to be identified. "I don't know where I'd be if my community hadn't stepped in and my neighbors, so that there's any silver lining in all of this, it's that you know, we take care of each other."
Police said a baseball bat was not used in the Sunday attacks. A total of nine victims have been linked to the same suspect in six separate incidents.
An investigation by Chicago police is ongoing.
