An 11-year-old boy and a 65-year-old man battling stage 4 cancer were among five family members robbed and beaten in a violent home invasion on Chicago’s West Side early Wednesday.
Police said it was around 1 a.m. when three men with baseball bats made their way into a West Town neighborhood apartment in the 18000 block of West Chicago Avenue and began attacking the residents.
At least one of the intruders also had a gun, according to police.
There were seven people inside the residence at the time, police said, but only two were left uninjured by the time the men fled after taking cellphones and almost $200 in cash.
Three people were transported to Cook County’s Stroger Hospital to be treated for their injuries.
One of the victims was 65-year-old Walter Johnson and his wife. Johnson has stage 4 rectal and liver cancer, the family said. Many of his family members gathered at the hospital for hours Wednesday morning praying that he would survive.
“He’s bad,” his son Louis Johnson said. “He’s critical.”
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Among the others hurt were two 62-year-old women and an 11-year-old boy, all of whom are expected to recover.
Johnson’s daughter, Rachel Miller, told NBC 5 she knows who is responsible for the attack and has shared the information with police.
“They said they were gonna bring people to kill my father, my brothers, my mother, my nieces, my nephews… They want to burn the house!” Miller said. “It’s them.”
No one is in custody as authorities continue to investigate the attack.
