Lincoln Park residents were on edge Friday after an alarming sexual assault attempt in the middle of the day and in an area bustling with businesses and families.
Police say it was around 12:30 p.m. in the 1900 block of Nor Halsted Street when a man tried to sexually assault a woman in an alley but she was able to get away. The suspect however was taken into police custody.
"You just think in the middle of the day that you’d be safe going in and out of your alley," neighbor Kristen Ishbia said. "Cause I was just pulling my bike out around 11:30, so just an hour before this woman was attacked!"
"Our bar has been able to identify many criminals because there are cameras everywhere," neighborhood bartender Lee Foster said.
And Foster says it’s those cameras that caught the suspect stalking his victim.
"The guy saw the woman from across the street, crossed the street followed her and then as soon as she got close to the alley, and he sped up and that’s all that we were able to see," Foster said.
It was enough to help police identify a suspect now in custody.
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The quick arrest was consolation for some neighbors, but not very much.
"I think it’s very scary, very scary indeed and alarming that something like that could happen in the middle of the day," neighbor Ellen Gavan said.
