Another brazen attack, this time in broad daylight, has residents in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood on high alert, and many are asking why the suspect is already walking free after the incident.
The attack occurred this week on Armitage Avenue, just after 1 p.m., according to police. Authorities say the suspect in the case went after a young woman for her phone.
During the attack, a 25-year-old woman was violently thrown to the ground. The attacker then wrestled with the woman until witnesses came to her aid, and the attacker fled the scene.
The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Deontae Brisco, was taken into custody a short time later, but he didn’t stay in jail for long, as he posted bond one day later, paying just $100 to be released.
“At the end of the day, as residents, we feel completely helpless,” resident Anupy Singla said. “We are like sitting ducks.”
Brisco was not armed when he attacked the woman, so the crime is being treated as a less violent offense, but people who live in the area worry that a string of high-profile attacks will continue if the consequences aren’t more severe.
“This is not the Chicago I moved to 20 years ago, and Lincoln Park is not the neighborhood I moved to 12 years ago,” Singla said.
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Other residents expressed the same shock after the attack, which comes on the heels of several other high-profile incidents, including the brutal stabbing of a 22-year-old woman in July and an armed carjacking just five days earlier.
“I’m shocked because it is such a busy street, and by and large you feel very safe,” Lincoln Park resident Patty Murphy said. “I don’t even necessarily look over my shoulder.”
The judge who set Brisco’s bond at $1,000 did require electronic monitoring, and he is expected back in court next week.
