A man who has “terrorized the community over the past 15 years,” according to a Cook County judge, is charged with sexually attacking two women at a CTA bus stop on the West Side.
Deandre Smith, 39, was detained by Judge Luciano Panici Jr., who described him in a detention order as “a violent person who is randomly violent with people he does not know on the street.” Chicago Police Department records show Smith has been arrested 22 times since 2014.
Prosecutors say Smith did not know either of the women he allegedly attacked last Tuesday.
The first victim, a 28-year-old woman, had just gotten off work and was walking to a CTA bus stop in the 3500 block of West Roosevelt Road when Smith approached her on a bicycle, prosecutors said in a detention filing. She heard someone saying something and lowered her headphones, only to hear him make a vulgar sexual remark, after which he asked if she was single and “had a man,” telling her he wanted to have sex with her, according to the filing. She repeatedly told him to leave her alone, but he allegedly followed her to the bus stop while making explicit comments.
Smith cornered the woman inside the bus shelter and repeated the vulgar remark. When she tried to walk around him, prosecutors allege, he grabbed her private area over her clothing. She managed to get past him, but he followed her, lowered his mask, and stuck out his tongue in a gesture mimicking his vulgar comments. He then bent down, put his face near her private area, and slapped her buttocks, prosecutors said.
The woman noticed Chicago police officers at a nearby Dunkin’ and tried to get their attention, but they did not respond. By then, Smith was riding away on Roosevelt Road.
Prosecutors said the second victim, a 22-year-old woman, had just stepped off a bus and bent over to tie her shoe when Smith ran up behind her, placed his hand on her private area, and squeezed her buttocks. He crossed the street, and both victims followed him. The first victim again tried to flag down the nearby officers, again without success.
As Smith and the two women crossed the street, a passing driver joined the pursuit. Smith eventually fell off his bicycle and fled into an alley, where he picked up a bottle and threw it at the second victim, narrowly missing her, prosecutors said. He then fled into another alley as both victims and the driver called 911. Officers eventually arrived and arrested him.
Surveillance video captured portions of the alleged contact but did not record all of it, according to prosecutors.
