Prosecutors this week charged a 43-year-old man with attacking or trying to attack three strangers with a knife during a rampage in Old Town two months ago.
But what happened in the months and weeks leading up to that incident is an increasingly familiar Chicago story: Repeated arrests. Repeated violations. Repeated warnings. And repeated releases by judges who kept putting him back on the street.
A review of Chicago Police Department reports and court records shows how often Tyshaun Stampley — usually arrested as Raeshaun or Rashaun Stampley — cycled in and out of custody before the Old Town attacks. Judges saw missed court dates, new arrests, and multiple violations of pretrial release conditions. Yet each time, he was allowed out, although he was often supposed to be on electronic monitoring, even after he failed to comply with that program.
His arrest trail begins around 1 a.m. on March 24 near the Mag Mile.
Officers responding to calls of a man removing his clothing found Stampley clothed but intoxicated in the 700 block of North Rush Street, a CPD report said. Cops released him to the fire department so he could be taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for detox, according to the report.
As a paramedic helped him into an ambulance, Stampley allegedly swung and struck the medic in the right side of the face. Police removed him from the ambulance and arrested him for aggravated battery of an EMT, a felony. That offense is not detainable under the SAFE-T Act and he was released the next day without electronic monitoring.
Court records show he missed his next hearing on March 31. He was not missing for long.
On April 3, cops arrested around 1 a.m. in the 1100 block of West Wilson Avenue.
A CPD report said he yelled out to a 40-year-old man, “Hey Chinaman! Hey! Yo! I don’t like Chinese men!” before punching the man above the left eye, leaving a bruise. After the victim called 911, police learned Stampley had also displayed a kitchen knife and threatened a 20-year-old man who was walking home from work, the report said.
Although officers noted that “upon further investigation” the first victim was not of Asian descent, that fact does not preclude a hate crime charge. Under Illinois law, what matters is the offender’s perception of the victim. They do not have to be right. Yet no hate crime charge was filed. In fact, no felony charges were filed at all.
Stampley instead faced a misdemeanor battery count and a misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon count. Prosecutors dropped the case on May 2.
A few days later, the judge overseeing the paramedic battery case, Shelley Sutker-Dermer, put him on electronic monitoring. Stampley stopped appearing for hearings on August 7 and Sutker Dermer issued a warrant.
Law enforcement tracked him down and brought him before Sutker Dermer again on September 11. She gave him a fifteen-day jail sanction for violating pretrial release, court records show. But that was cut in half by state law and reduced further by six days that he already spent in custody.
Within hours, Stampley was back on the street on electronic monitoring with permission to leave his home for “work” from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays.
Less than a month later, on October 5, Stampley was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges again, this time in the 1300 block of West Albion Avenue. Judge Susana Ortiz placed him on electronic monitoring and noted in the record that he “attacked [a] random person” and has a “pending agg batt.”
And eight days later, prosecutors say, he was walking around Old Town with a knife.
Shortly before 6 p.m. on October 13, a 31-year-old man stepped off a bus in the 300 block of West Division Street. Stampley approached him aggressively, struck him in the shoulder, and held a knife in his hand, according to a detention filing. After the man began calling 911, Stampley allegedly knocked the victim’s phone from behind. The victim, who later discovered three small cuts in his shirt, followed Stampley until Stampley slipped inside a public library.
Moments later, police say, Stampley lunged at a 33-year-old man at the library and swung a knife toward the man’s abdomen. The knife created a “small pin prick laceration to his stomach” and a hole in the fabric of his jacket, according to the detention petition.
He then approached a 49-year-old man outside the library and swung the knife twice, cutting open the man’s backpack and causing a laceration to his back, prosecutors said.
Officers arrested Stampley nearby. All three victims identified him. Stampley denied carrying a knife.
The only charges filed were misdemeanors: three counts of battery and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He was detained only because of his long list of pretrial release violations, not because the new charges qualified for detention.
Prosecutors dropped all six Old Town misdemeanor charges on October 28 and refiled the case this week as five felony aggravated battery counts. During a detention hearing on Tuesday, Judge Rivanda Doss Beal reiterated a detention order for Stampley, citing what she called his “criminal versatility.”
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