CHICAGO — Bleach was thrown in a woman's face during an attempted robbery three blocks from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's house in Ravenswood Saturday, police said.
The woman, 22, was walking in the 4400 block of North Paulina Street about 3:20 p.m. when she was confronted by a man and woman, said Officer Veejay Zala, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
The woman tried to take the victim's purse, and then "threw some sort of caustic substance" at her, Zala said.
The pair ran away after the unsuccessful robbery attempt, Zala said. The victim was treated at the scene for minor injuries, he said.
Curtis Rund, 33, lives on the block where the woman was attacked, and said he heard screaming coming from the street while inside his home.
"I thought it was just kids," he said, but he ran outside when he heard someone yelling to call 911.
The woman was "crying," "upset" and "confused," he said, as neighbors gathered around her. A water bottle containing what Rund said was bleach was on the ground, and another neighbor tried to catch the woman's attackers.
Neighbors brought the woman water to flush out her eyes.
"Her eye was really, really red," Rund said. "There was a water bottle on the sidewalk. We picked it up and smelled it, and it was bleach."
He said his wife had seen the suspects walking on the street earlier and "had a weird feeling about them."
The victim, he said, was carrying a purse and a laptop computer bag.
The victim told neighbors that when the woman approached her, she "had a water bottle and threw it in [the victim's] face, and started punching her and tried to grab her purse."
They fled when neighbors came outside.
Rund, who said he's lived on the block for about two years, said the neighborhood is tight: "They keep an eye out for each other."
But he said he was concerned about the police response and that they waited nearly 30 minutes for officers to respond.
"The mayor does live a couple of blocks down the street, and he has a 24-hour patrol," he said. "A lot of people are irritated they can't leave their post."
