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Police: Boy, 9, Kidnapped, Assaulted on Way to School in Portage Park

By Heather Cherone | November 18, 2013 8:29pm
 Portage Park Elementary School
Portage Park Elementary School
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DNAinfo/Heather Cherone

11/19/2013 UPDATE, 10:30 a.m.: A day after a police community alert warned of the kidnapping and assault of a 9-year-old Northwest Side boy on his way to school, multiple sources cast doubt on the boy's story, saying there are "inconsistencies." Read more here.

PORTAGE PARK — A 9-year-old boy walking home from Portage Park Elementary School was abducted, knocked unconscious and left in an alley, police said Monday.

The boy was walking two blocks from his house from the school at 5330 W. Berteau Ave. when he was abducted in the 5200 block of Berteau Avenue by a Hispanic man in a dark cargo van, according to an alert sent by Jefferson Park Police District Commander James O'Donnell Monday evening.

The man forced the boy into the van, and drove off. When the boy screamed, the man hit the boy with a bat and the 9-year-old lost consciousness, according to O'Donnell.

The boy awoke in an alley in the 4100 block of North Dickinson Avenue with no shoes, according to O'Donnell.

He was taken to Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, where he is being evaluated. No information on his condition was available, according to O'Donnell.

Police officers were reviewing video footage captured by surveillance cameras outside Savoy Liquors, 4138 N. Milwaukee Ave., in the Six Corners Shopping District, a store employee said Monday evening.

Ald. Tim Cullerton (38th) said he was shocked and alarmed that a crime against a child like this would occur in Portage Park, one of the safest neighborhoods in Chicago. 

"I couldn't believe it," Cullerton said. "I'm very concerned."

Cullerton's ward includes Portage Park Elementary School, although the boy was discovered in Ald. John Arena's 45th Ward.

The investigation is ongoing, according to O'Donnell.