A group of students were viciously attacked last week outside of their school on a busy downtown Chicago street and their attacker has not yet been caught, according to authorities.
The attack happened around 4 p.m. Friday just outside Muchin College Prep, located on the seventh floor of a building at 1 North State St. just blocks from the city's Millennium Park.
The group of teens was leaving school when they spotted a man beating a woman on the sidewalk.
“He grabbed her and choked her and picked her up and they were arguing through the sidewalk,” said 16-year-old Mark Randolph.
Randolph said that’s when the man turned his attention to the group of students, first attacking them verbally, then physically.
“We just left, then we walked off and he came up from behind me and hit me in my face,” Randolph said.
The man then began hitting one of Randolph’s female classmates and the teen jumped in to defend her.
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“He punched her in her face and knocked her out,” Randolph said. “I just started fighting him. My friend tried to hit him with a crutch and then he grabbed it and hit him with it. Then he ran off laughing.”
Randolph, who suffered a broken thumb and fractured cheekbone in the incident, said that even though police were called, no officers came to the scene.
“People was calling police before, but no one showed up,” he said. “Every time I come down here the police is visible but that shocks me that police never showed, police never came.”
Chicago police did say a report was filed on the incident but no one was in custody as of Tuesday. An investigation remained ongoing.
The building where the attack happened has several security cameras that may have captured the incident. Randolph’s mother Sherida Randolph is hoping police will look at the footage and inform parents and others who frequent the area.
“We’re committed to student safety even after students leave our walls and will continue to work with staff and local authorities to do everything we can,” Cody Rogers, director of communications for the Noble Network of Charter Schools, said in a statement Tuesday.
As for Randolph, the teen said breaking his hand to defend his classmate was well worth it and he’d do it again.
