Chicago police have just released a video of a man who is wanted for allegedly attacking people with a hammer in the Loop last month. CWB Chicago first told you about the attacks after they happened on December 8.
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. that morning. The police could not locate the man, and the hotel did not want to file a theft report, so the matter seemed resolved.
But about an hour later, a 53-year-old man was struck in the head with a metal object, described by witnesses as either a hammer or crowbar, while walking in the 100 block of West Madison, according to a Chicago police report.
“I was just outside my office on Clark and Madison,” a witness wrote in a message to CWB Chicago 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.
If you know anything about the suspect in the above video, you can call Detective Rozanski at 312-744-0570 and talk about case number JF-502607.
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