Prosecutors today charged a south suburban man with slashing a Lakeview resident in an apparently random attack on Monday.
Julian Grange, 26, of Country Club Hills is charged with felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police said.
The 42-year-old victim told police he was walking on the 900 block of West George just before noon when an attacker approached him from behind and cut his face with a knife, according to a police department spokesperson.
In an email to neighbors, the victim said, “I saw [the offender], but thought nothing of it, and then did not hear him coming up behind me until it was too late.”
Police said the victim was treated for a five-inch cut to the side of his face at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Grange was detained by officers on the 3100 block of North Sheffield around 12:15 p.m. because he reportedly resembled the attacker. He was subsequently identified by the victim, police said. Officers reported finding a steak knife nearby.
“I’m ok, fortunately, but he did cut me across my face and it was pretty random,” the victim wrote. “A couple of good Samaritans in the neighborhood stopped to help and we called the police.”
“My learning,” wrote the victim, “was not to have both earbuds in.”
When Grange went missing after leaving Holy Cross Hospital two years ago, Chicago police issued a missing person alert that said he suffered from schizophrenia.