A man who cruises around the Loop and South Loop is being sought for a series of sexual abuse cases that have been reported across the downtown area since June 1. Chicago police issued a community alert about the man after he allegedly groped a woman at the Roosevelt Red Line station on Saturday morning, but similar incidents have been discussed on Next Door for weeks.
“Never thought it would happen to me, too,” a woman told CWBChicago in an email on Friday, just hours before the man apparently struck again. “I was walking back from work, got to Michigan and Roosevelt, and had a hard slap on my butt with a disgusting whisper in my ear from the same man on his electric skateboard.”
She said the man attacked her near Roosevelt and Michigan around 5 p.m. Thursday, August 4. Other women reported that he touched them in the downtown area the same day.
“I am so angry that I did not scream or run after him,” the woman continued. “I was in shock at the moment, and the only reflex I had was to take pics of him as he kept skating on Michigan.”
“I did report to the police and [I am] waiting for a call from the investigator, but this man deserves to be publicly shamed for what he does to women on an almost daily basis on South Michigan Avenue, Museum Campus, and South Loop.”
Witnesses on Next Door said he has black hair, appears relatively short, and may be between 20- and 25-years-old.
“He didn’t care that there were witnesses,” one person posted. “He seems to slow down as he’s approaching his targets and grabs very aggressively and just keeps going.”
“The first girl he grabbed was young and in tears, and, while we were consoling her, he reappeared, and that’s when we chased.”
CPD’s community alert only specifies two incidents, the most recent at 10:15 a.m. Saturday. The warning said a man wearing a white helmet, sunglasses, a blue polo shirt, and blue jeans approached a woman from behind and touched her buttocks and genitalia in the 1100 block of South State Street. He then rode away on a motorized one-wheeled skateboard, the alert said.
According to police dispatch reports, the incident happened on the stairs leading up from the Roosevelt Red Line station.
Another woman was similarly accosted by the man around 10:15 a.m. on June 1 in the 400 block of West Lake, the CPD alert said.
Anyone with information about him is asked to call Area Three detectives at 312-744-8261 and reference case numbers JF346444 and JF263556.
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