A Red Line beating that might have remained just another unsolved transit assault was cracked open when Chicago police detectives came upon Facebook video of the attack and recognized two of the assailants, prosecutors said.
Cops arrested Mary Webb, 22, and Alaiyah King, 20, after they recently appeared in court for another case in which they are charged with assaulting a CTA passenger in January.
According to prosecutors, the latest victim was riding the Red Line on the South Side on February 16 when she noticed a group of people fighting on the other end of the railcar. Some members of the group thought she was recording the altercation on her phone, so Webb and King confronted her, prosecutors said.
Webb allegedly threw the first punch, striking the victim repeatedly as the victim tried to defend herself by raising her hands and swinging back, prosecutors said in a detention filing. King allegedly joined in and began punching her as well.
At some point during the struggle, the victim lost control of her purse inside the train car, according to prosecutors. She was then pushed off the train onto the 69th Street platform.
Once on the platform, King allegedly “posted up in a fighting stance” and paced in front of the victim while Webb sprayed the woman in the face with pepper spray, the detention filing said. Webb and King then left the area, and the woman went to St. Bernard Hospital, where she was treated for injuries to her eyes, according to prosecutors.
CTA surveillance cameras captured part of the incident. But prosecutors said the critical break in the case came when detectives recognized Webb and King in this Facebook video (language advisory):
The detectives placed pictures of the women in separate photo arrays, and the victim identified both as her attackers, prosecutors said. Judge Shauna Boliker ordered both women detained on charges of aggravated battery of a transit passenger. Their misdemeanor assault cases from January are still pending, too.
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