A man beat a woman with a baseball bat and slashed her face, possibly with a box cutter, as she sat on a CTA bus stop bench in the West Loop early Wednesday. A witness said the woman appeared to be homeless.
In an unrelated incident, prosecutors have charged a homeless man with kicking and beating a man who was sleeping on a planter in the Loop last Friday. The attack left that victim unconscious and intubated, although his condition has stabilized, according to prosecutors.
In the West Loop attack, police said a 46-year-old woman was sitting on a bench on the 500 block of West Madison when the attacker approached around 1:37 a.m. Wednesday.
The man slashed her face with a sharp object and struck her several times with a baseball bat, said Kellie Bartoli, a CPD spokesperson. Bartoli said the woman suffered cuts to her face and two broken forearms. A CPD report said the victim was slashed several times.
EMS took the woman to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition.
A witness told police the offender was a Black male who wore a white jacket who fled east on Madison after the attack.
The Loop attack occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, May 13. Prosecutors said a homeless man was lying on a sidewalk with his head resting on a brick planter on the 400 block of South Clark. Another homeless man, identified by prosecutors as 30-year-old Deshaun Keeton, and a woman were sitting nearby.
Without provocation, Keeton stood up and kicked the victim in his face, causing the man to fall from the planter, prosecutors said. The victim remained motionless on the sidewalk as Keeton continued to kick him in the face and upper body, according to the allegations.
Keeton walked away for a moment, then returned and started kicking the victim in the face and body again, prosecutors said.
Two people who work nearby saw what was happening and called the police. One of them recorded Keeton on her phone until he started walking toward her. She then retreated to the business where she works and locked the door as Keeton threatened to kill her from outside, prosecutors said.
Keeton then returned to the injured man and sat down next to paramedics as they treated the victim, according to prosecutors. He left before police arrived.
But cops viewed the woman’s video and arrested him nearby. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. Surveillance cameras reportedly captured the entire incident, which occurred just steps from the federally operated Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Prosecutors said the victim suffered a subdural hematoma, and authorities initially could not identify him. He is no longer intubated and his identity is now known.
Keeton was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in Missouri this year, prosecutors said. He has previous convictions in Iowa for assault and narcotics.
Judge Maryam Ahmad set Keeton’s bail at $155,000. He must post 10% of that to get out of jail on electronic monitoring.
