COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Rogers Park man is charged with attempted sexual assault in separate attacks on two women pushing their children around the neighborhood in strollers, prosecutors said.
Hassan Flowers, 25, of the 6700 block of North Bosworth Avenue, was arrested and charged after neighbors heard one of the women screaming in the 1700 block of West Pratt Avenue, prosecutors said. They ran to help and detained Flowers until the police arrived.
The 24-year-old woman was pushing a stroller about 11 a.m. Monday when Flowers grabbed her from behind, dragged her to the ground and knocked over her 2-year-old son, prosecutors said.
He straddled the woman and struck her in the face, prosecutors said. Flowers attempted to assault the woman while muffling her cries for help with one hand, but neighbors heard the commotion and came to the woman's aid, prosecutors said.
Just five minutes earlier, the same man had attacked a 17-year-old teen, also pushing a stroller, in the 1600 block of West Morse Avenue, prosecutors said. When Flowers grabbed her hair, trying to pull her to the ground, the young mother elbowed him in the neck and screamed, they said.
Flowers is charged with aggravated battery of the first woman and attempted sexual assault of the second, prosecutors said.
He was not charged in a third case in which he allegedly followed a woman into a public bathroom and grabbed and struck her. Flowers fled when the woman screamed, prosecutors said.
Flowers was ordered held on $1 million bail when he appeared briefly in court Tuesday.
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