Elderly Couple Beaten By ‘Gutless’ Attacker During Home Invasion on Northwest Side

An elderly couple was beaten during a home invasion and robbery on Chicago’s Northwest Side late Thursday night.

Police said the 81-year-old man and 77-year-old woman suffered lacerations to their faces when a man or men dressed in all black hoodies entered their home just before midnight in the 5400 block of West Henderson in the Cragin neighborhood and struck them.

The men then took the woman’s purse and fled the scene, authorities said.

The couple was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition. No one was in custody as of Friday morning.

“When you’re a gutless individual you take on anybody,” said neighbor Ron Dompke. “It’s a shame that happened.”

Community activist Andrew Holmes was in the neighborhood passing out fliers Friday morning and asking area residents to check for surveillance footage of the suspect or suspects.

“To these individuals, you will be tracked down,” he said.

Less than one week earlier a 78-year-old woman was brutally beaten inside her home a few miles away in the Irving Park neighborhood. On Wednesday another elderly woman was the victim of a home invasion in the 4800 block of West Nelson Street around 9:30 p.m., police say.

The suspect in that attack, which family said was also a robbery, was described as a tall Hispanic man wearing glasses and a red hat.

Police have not said if the incidents are believed to be connected, but Area North detectives are investigating both incidents.

"Whoever you are this is someone's grandmother and this has to stop,” Holmes said. “The gun violence is enough in Chicago and now seniors... It's unacceptable."

Holmes is offering a $1,000 reward for information on the attackers.

“Think about your grandmother and your mother takin’ a beatin’ when they’re asleep at night and somebody’s coming in and violating their property,” he said.

Ald. Ariel Reboyra, 30th, says the elderly are specifically targeted by some criminals.

“They [criminals] don’t care, they’re easy prey for them, unfortunately,” Reboyra said.