Prosecutors say a North Side man is responsible for a series of random attacks in which women were doused with urine while walking in Andersonville and Lincoln Square.
Bright I. Ibeh, 35, was charged Sunday with felonies in connection with two incidents.
On the evening of November 6, a 60-year-old woman was walking her dog on the 5300 block of North Ashland when Ibeh passed by and threw liquid into her face from a paper cup, prosecutors said.
She felt burning in her eyes and noticed the strong smell of urine developed as the liquid dried.
The woman, identified as Katie Lyons, spoke with CBS2 about the incident two months later.
“The look of rage in his face – and just the way his eyes looked,” Lyons said. “He had a large cup in his hand, and just as he was passing me, threw the contents of it into my eyes. And I yelled for help, just because my eyes were burning, and I couldn’t see, and I dropped my phone.”
Other women reported being attacked with urine over the next several weeks, and the suspect description was the same in each case, according to prosecutors.
On December 30, Ibeh went to a North Side police station for an unrelated matter, and officers noticed that he resembled the urine-tossing suspect, prosecutors said.
But CBS2’s story from last month gives a different version of events.
According to their story, another woman reported that a man chased her and threw urine on her back in late December and then accompanied her to the police station. She filed a complaint about the incident, and the man accused her of letting her dogs loose on him.
“The police officer called me back and said, ‘He told us that story, so we let him go,'” the woman told CBS2.
The 60-year-old victim subsequently identified Ibeh in a photo line-up and police arrested him on Friday, according to prosecutors.
He is charged with aggravated battery of a senior citizen over the age of 60 and aggravated battery in a public place.
Ibeh’s public defender said he has an accounting degree and no criminal background.
Marubio told court observers that she struggled to find context or an explanation for Ibeh’s alleged behavior in police reports or the presentations she heard from state and defense attorneys.
She then set his bail at $5,000, meaning he must post a $500 deposit to get out of jail.
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