The man who prosecutors say stabbed three homeless men as they slept in Grant Park and along the Red Line this summer was ordered held without bail during a court appearance Saturday.
Bryant McCalip, 28, is also suspected of stabbing and killing a fourth homeless man in Grant Park last month, prosecutors said. Unlike the other three attacks, the murder of 53-year-old Aaron Curry was not captured on surveillance video. Prosecutors are awaiting forensic analysis of a broken knife found at the murder scene before the state pursues charges in that case.
McCalip followed the same pattern during each attack, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said Saturday: He approached the sleeping victims, stared at them and loitered near them for several minutes, and then stabbed them repeatedly in their necks with a knife that he held in his left hand. McCalip allegedly signed paperwork left-handed while in police custody.
Murphy said McCalip’s family members turned him in after seeing photos of the attacker on media reports this week. Data from McCalip’s Ventra card was also used to track his travels, according to Murphy.
Prosecutors charged McCalip with attacking a 30-year-old homeless man on a bench outside the CTA Red Line station at 63rd Street on July 15; a 53-year-old homeless man near the Grant Skate Park in Grant Park on July 24; and a 40-year-old man on a Red Line train at 95th Street on August 18. He faces one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm in each case.
The Grant Park victim was attacked about 30 feet from where Curry was found fatally stabbed on July 9. Murphy said police found a knife blade embedded in Curry’s shoulder and the knife’s broken handle lying in some grass nearby. Those items have been sent to a crime lab for DNA analysis, Murphy said.
Curry died from multiple stab wounds to his abdomen and neck.
McCalip “stalked these people like they were prey and ended up stabbing them and watched as they suffered,” Judge John Lyke said as he summarized the state’s allegations in the charged cases.
“I’ve been around the law for a very long time,” the judge continued. “What I just heard, if this is true, this is the epitome of evil…[McCalip] presents a real and present threat to this community and any human being, any living thing, that he comes in contact with.”
