Chicago — A 53-year-old man is recovering after being struck in the head with a metal object, possibly a hammer or crowbar, while walking in the Loop on Thursday morning, according to a Chicago police report.
Officers were initially dispatched to reports of a man walking around River North with a hammer, apparently after stealing it from a tool cart at a hotel near Michigan Avenue around 9:45 a.m.
The police could not locate the man, and the hotel did not want to file a theft report, so the matter seemed resolved.
That is, until shortly after 11 a.m., when an unknown man struck another man in the head as he walked on the first block of West Madison, a CPD spokesperson said.
“I was just outside my office on Clark and Madison,” a witness wrote in a message to CWBChicago shortly after the attack. “Guy comes from behind and hits a man in the head with a sledgehammer and walks down the middle of the road like nothing happened.”
An officer who happened to be in the area radioed for an ambulance to attend to the man, who was bleeding from the head. EMS took him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where his condition stabilized, according to the police spokesperson.
Other people in the area also reported a man threatening pedestrians with a hammer, but no injuries were reported.
One officer at the scene said the suspect was “walking around with a big hammer.” Another said the man might also have a crowbar.
Police searched the area for the attacker without success. CPD’s spokesperson said no arrests had been made as of Friday morning.
The offender was described as a Black male standing about 5’9″ tall who wore a dark coat over a green hoodie.