Approximately 200 people gathered at a downtown Quincy park Saturday in support of a suburban college student who said she was attacked by the owner of a central Illinois night club earlier this month.
Jazzpher Evans, a student and basketball player at Quincy University, was at The Barn night club in Quincy early Easter Sunday morning when she was involved in an altercation with the club’s owner, according to police and her attorneys.
Evans' attorney says that she was attacked while standing next to a DJ booth at the establishment. Her attorney says that Evans was violently pushed against a wall, then was thrown to the ground by the owner of the bar, who was identified as Steven Homan.
“He didn’t say anything to me. His first instinct was to shove me up against the wall, and that’s what he did, and he held me there. I put my hand up to defend myself, and that’s when he began screaming at me,” Evans previously told NBC 5. “He told me to get the f*** out of the place and he started spitting in my face, and I put my hand up over my face and so I blocked it, and that’s when he grabbed my hand and he drove me to the ground.”
She was then placed in a chokehold and lost consciousness.
“I started to pass out, and I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “My friend begged him to put me down and he was like ‘no.’”
Evans suffered a traumatic brain injury and suffered multiple lacerations and cuts to her face, nose, hip, back and neck, attorneys say.
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Homan faces a felony charge of aggravated battery in connection with the incident, Evan's attorney's announced Wednesday.
At Saturday's rally, the college student's family told WGEM, the NBC affiliate in Quincy, that they were pleased with the charge, but the fight for justice isn't over.
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"...We have to continue to spread awareness and protest against violence," one family member said. "Violence against women, against people of color, against Black people, and we need to demand that The Barn be shut down."
The owner of the bar has not responded to NBC 5's requests for comment.
