LINCOLN PARK — Bill O'Connell, a 46-year-old Berwyn resident who was stabbed repeatedly near North Avenue Beach, said he felt "lucky" that it happened to him — and not to someone else.
"I'm very capable of handling myself," O'Connell told DNAinfo Chicago. "Someone else could've been very seriously hurt."
The stabbing happened July 17 around 9:30 p.m., according to police.
O'Connell, who says he regularly lifts weights and plays sports, was on his way home from a pick-up volleyball game at North Avenue Beach.
He was walking in the 2000 block of North Lincoln Park West with a volleyball bag slung over one shoulder and a bag full of gear over the other.
Suddenly, the stabber — who police identified as Michael Curry, of Garfield Park — walked up to him and threw liquid in his face, prompting O'Connell to drop his bags and shout: "What the f*** is your problem?"
As O'Connell was clearing his eyes, Curry came closer and stabbed him in the right temple.
"My hands were in front of my face so I was completely unprepared for it," O'Connell said.
When Curry came toward him again, O'Connell knocked him to the ground and jumped on top of him. During the tussle, Curry stabbed O'Connell at least three more times.
It wasn't until O'Connell saw blood rushing from his face that he realized Curry had a knife.
"It felt like weak punches," O'Connell said, adding that he was "in charge" after the initial stab to the temple.
Soon, though, O'Connell began to feel weak from the loss of blood, so he stood up.
"I thought I could be in trouble if I passed out on top of him," he said. "I thought, 'If I passed out on top of him, he'll probably kill me.' That's the only time I was worried."
Curry ran just five steps before slowing down to a walk, which O'Connell assumes was because he didn't want anyone to recognize he was fleeing a crime scene.
"Covered in blood from head to toe," O'Connell followed Curry for four long blocks to make sure police could catch him, he said.
"It felt like I was walking forever," he said.
Along the way, passers-by saw a bloody O'Connell and tried to talk him into going into the hospital, but O'Connell told them he needed to make sure Curry was caught and urged them to call the police.
Responding officers found Curry only "30 seconds" after O'Connell lost track of him in an alley, O'Connell said.
O'Connell was taken to Northwestern Hospital, where he stayed for three days and was treated for five stab wounds.
At first, he couldn't lift his left arm, but O'Connell said he's been healing well since the incident.
Curry faces one felony count of aggravated battery and deadly use of a weapon, which O'Connell described as "shocking," especially given Curry's arrest history.
"I thought it would have been something more serious," O'Connell said of the charges.
Just weeks before the incident, on June 19, Curry was arrested near the Chicago Red Line station and charged with armed robbery and aggravated battery, according to police records. But a judge later ruled there was no finding of probable cause to pursue criminal charges, court records show.
Curry's only pending case in Cook County stems from the North Avenue beach attack. Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. on July 19 set bail at $500,000.
Curry was previously convicted of several misdemeanor crimes, including theft of service (2008, 2012), criminal trespass to land (2013) and battery (2014, 2015). In all, he was sentenced to 102 days in Cook County Jail.
O'Connell, who has three college-aged children and lives with his brother, said he doesn't feel any less safe walking in Chicago after the incident.
"I still think it's a very safe area," he said. "It shows that anything can happen anywhere, really. You have to be careful anywhere you go."
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