CHICAGO — A Lakeview man who entered his neighbor’s apartment and began fighting with him is recovering after the neighbor defended himself with a machete, according to a Chicago police report.
Clayton Curcio, 32, could not attend his bail hearing over the weekend because he was still hospitalized and scheduled to undergo a second surgery to repair severe injuries to both arms, according to court and police records.
Curcio allegedly entered his neighbor’s apartment through an unlocked door around 1 p.m. Saturday and confronted a 36-year-old man who lives there in the bedroom.
When the situation turned physical, the victim fetched a machete that his female roommate “keeps…by her bed for safety,” according to the report.
Officers reported that he shoved Curcio away while wielding the machete, but the fight continued, pouring onto the porch, back into the bedroom, and onto the second-floor landing.
Finally, “to prevent further battery to himself,” the man began hitting Curcio with the machete. The blade inflicted deep cuts on both of Curcio’s wrists, and he fled downstairs to his apartment, police said.
Officers followed a blood trail and found Curcio lying on his own bed with a towel wrapped around both hands to stop his blood loss.
Curcio, agitated and speaking incoherently, shoved fire department personnel and refused to be treated. But an officer “was able to gain voluntary compliance by retrieving his taser and [pointing] it at the direction of the offender,” the report said.
“Through persuasion and advice and the fact that he was bleeding profusely, the offender reluctantly complied and let CFD personnel bandage his opened [sic] wounds, and a tourniquet was applied to prevent any further blood loss.”
The report does not explain why Curcio went into the neighbor’s apartment. He has never been arrested before, according to the police report.
Prosecutors charged him with two counts of criminal trespass to a residence. Judge William Fahy set bail at $10,000, meaning Curcio must pay a $1,000 bail deposit to be released.
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