A woman who was brutally attacked by a man with a clown mask while in a laundromat on Chicago's Northwest Side described the "horrifying" seconds-long encounter that left her with multiple stab wounds.
In an interview with NBC Chicago's Christian Farr, Erika Gierczak said she was waiting for her mom to pick her up from the Portage Park laundromat she has been going to for years, but she had a "strange feeling."
"Like a sixth sense," she said. "Like something is going to happen, but I just didn't feel anything of it because the laundry is always safe, you know?"
Shortly after, a man wearing a clown mask and a hoodie walked in and, without saying a word, attacked her.
"I was sitting there on my phone looking. I didn't think anything of it," Gierczak said. "I seen some shadow coming in to the side of my face, you know, side of my eyes. I turn to look and I see, like, this man storming at me."
She said the moment was so overwhelming that she froze.
"I was trying to move, like trying to run," Gierczak said, "but I froze because, like, there was a shocking moment. I couldn't do anything. I just froze. And then he just comes up at me, doesn't say anything. Looking at me with the clown mask. It was very scary. I'm looking at the clown mask, trying to see his eyes, but I couldn't. And he just started stabbing me real hard. And he didn't say anything. And then I just felt like, 'Oh my God,' because I've never been stabbed in my life and it was just horrible, horrifying."
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Gierczak said she put her legs and arms over her head and torso to prevent her organs or heart from being stabbed in the attack. She said she pleaded with the man to stop.
"What I said was, 'Please stop, please.' That's all I said. And then he stabbed me again two times in the arm and he just walked out," she said.
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Gierczak suffered numerous stab wounds to her legs and arms, all in what she believes was about 50 seconds.
"I looked down and I'm bleeding everywhere," Gierczak recalled. "I stand up, and the blood is leaking on the floor. I could hear it like pouring. And I walk like towards the door with the blood like still streaming down. And then I call 911 and then I don't remember what happened. I just kind of fainted."
According to police, the attack happened just after 7:30 p.m. Friday in the 5800 block of West Montrose Avenue.
Gierczak, who is 37, was taken to Lutheran Hospital in serious condition.
"I said, 'Why is this happening to me? I don't know who this person is. I haven't done anything wrong,'" she said.
Now, she says she's dealing with the physical injuries along with the mental.
"I feel very depressed ... it's a traumatic experience, you know, I never had this experience in my life," she said. "And it just happened all of a sudden, in 50 seconds. So this could happen to anyone, you know, being alone in a place like that, you know? I was unaware."
Gierczak asked for anyone who may know what happened to her to please contact Chicago authorities.
Chicago police said an investigation was ongoing but no one was in custody.
