Man Attacked By Teens, Knocked Unconscious In River North; 'We Don't Feel Safe Downtown Anymore'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- He went out for a night of fun downtown, but David Osorio said his fun turned to terror when a group of teens attacked him, knocking him out and breaking his car windshield.
It's one of the latest in a string of similar attacks plaguing downtown Chicago in recent days.
CBS 2's Steven Graves reports Osorio is now trying to do some investigating of his own.
Osorio was walking down the Huron Street near Franklin Street Thursday night when he was attacked, and hoping any nearby surveillance camera caught something, because he blacked out after hitting the ground.
Fresh out of the hospital, Osorio's shirt – front and back – and pants still have blood on them.
He has fractured bones in his face. Doctors will have to treat his eye later.
"They couldn't really check my eye really well, because it's too swollen," he said.
Pain medication was the only thing getting him through his interview after a seemingly random attack downtown.
"The only thing that I remember is that I was, like, punched in my eye and I lost ... I wasn't conscious," he said.
Osorio said it happened when he was meeting friends Thursday night around 11 p.m. in the River North neighborhood.
As he was walking near Huron and Wells, e saw a group people walking behind him.
"They were, like, super young. I don't really think that they were 16; like 16 at most," he said.
After they knocked him unconscious, he said he laid on the ground.
"They thought they killed me for a while, because that's when they left," he said.
But he said they came right back as he got up and went into his car.
"And they tried to open the door, and it wasn't locked," he said.
They banged on the windshield.
"It was probably with their fist I think," he said.
Osorio floored the gas pedal and drove to the hospital Thursday night, filing a police report Friday morning. Police classified it as an attempted carjacking.
"We don't feel safe in downtown anymore," he said.
Police have warned of similar random attacks downtown.
A woman who was brutally beaten late Saturday night was one of the victims in a string of five attacks over three days from Saturday through Monday, each carried out by groups of teens downtown
Some of those teens were arrested, but later released.
"I just felt like I had to speak up," Osorio said.
Osorio said he forgives the teens.
He said the attack could have been worse.
He now wants something done at the top from Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office.