LOGAN SQUARE — About a month after a 24-year-old woman was fondled in Logan Square, police say three separate attacks have been reported — and the same suspect appears to be responsible.
Police issued the alert Friday about incidents of sexual abuse occurring in the area from June 19-22. Police also have increased patrols of marked and unmarked units, while detectives analyze other cases and prior offenders, said the Shakespeare Police District Capt. Mark Buslik.
According to one witness, a fourth, unreported attack, also occurred Wednesday in Logan Square — the woman was attacked during the day just blocks away from the California Blue Line station, the witness said.
The woman was walking on North California Avenue, between Shakespeare Avenue and North Point Street on June 25 — just south of the Shakespeare District Police Station — when a man ran up to her and shoved his hands up her dress about 10 a.m., the witness said.
Neighborhood resident Jade Yoho was walking to grab a cup of coffee when she heard the woman scream and looked over to see the man running southbound on California Avenue, she said.
"This was broad daylight on a relatively busy street in the morning when there's a lot of people out, right next to a police station," Yoho told DNAinfo Chicago afterward. "It's pretty brazen."
Yoho helped the woman after her attacker fled. Other people were standing on the street, Yoho said. She said the woman yelled out to ask if anybody had witnessed the attack.
"She wasn't physically hurt, but she was crying and ... shaken and just kind of confused and shocked as to what had happened," she said.
Yoho said neither she nor the woman got a look at the man's face, but Yoho described him as a relatively thin, Hispanic man in his mid-20s. He was about 5-foot-5, and wore an oversized white T-shirt.
Yoho urged the woman to file a report at the nearby police station to spread the word about what had happened, she said. As of Friday, police said no report had been filed about an attack at that location.
But a string of similar attacks were announced by police Friday near Logan Square and Humboldt Park by a man who appears to match the suspect's description:
• On June 19, around 5:35 p.m., a 22-year-old woman was walking northbound in the 1500 block of North Rockwell Street when she was approached from behind by a man on a bicycle. The man grabbed the victim's buttocks before riding west on North Avenue.
• Later on the same day, at 7:15 p.m., a 38-year-old woman was walking northbound in the 2400 block of North Kedzie Boulevard when she was approached from behind by a man on a silver bicycle. He grabbed the victim's buttocks and fled.
• On Sunday, about 7:30 a.m., a 18-year-old woman was walking southbound in the 1400 block of North Homan Avenue when a man walked up on her from behind. He grabbed her buttocks and ran east on Beach Avenue.
The suspect is described as Hispanic, 15-20 years old, 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-10 with a thin build and light complexion. He was wearing a yellow or blue T-shirt and shorts and riding a bicycle in two of the three reported incidents.
Yoho said she wants police to catch the attacker, saying she does not want to have to worry about her or her friends walking around the neighborhood.
"We shouldn't have to be scared, and we shouldn't have to think about when we're getting dressed in the morning how we probably shouldn't wear a skirt because some dude might to assault" us, she said.
On May 19, a 24-year-old woman was attacked in during the day, just a few blocks away, police said.
The woman was walking in the 2900 block of West Lyndale Street at 9:30 a.m. when a man approached her from behind and sexually abused her, according to police. The man was described as Hispanic, about 5-foot-6 and about 25-years-old.
Police said no arrests have been made in connection with the May incident.
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