Woman says she was beaten during gridlock in West Loop
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A third night of Mexican Independence Day celebrations took over Chicago's Loop Saturday night as hundreds of people poured into downtown to celebrate. The party created a giant gridlock. Authorities are betting the celebrations have come to an end, which is why police said they were planning no road closures Sunday night.
As the downtown area was at a virtual standstill, one woman claims she was beaten after a confrontation with another driver on the road. The pictures of her injuries may be disturbing to see.
The victim's face is clearly swollen and bruised. Her attackers got away.
The streets were quiet Sunday night, but just 24 hours earlier was day two of gridlock -- this time in Fulton Market rather than the Loop.
Caught in the middle of it all was a woman, bruised, kicked in the face and attacked, she says because two women got angry sitting in the traffic.
"All this because you couldn't merge left? All of this because we're all still stuck in traffic?" said Karoline Pacheco.
She could not flee her worst nightmare -- because she was stuck in gridlock.
Her eye was swollen, her pants ripped and her nose bruised.
"She was hitting me and hitting me in the face. She threw me down and she started kicking me in the face, too," Pacheco said.
She said it started just before midnight Saturday, stuck in a sea of cars on Lake and Canal.
"There was no room for them to merge into my lane, so they got to a point where they got to me on my right side passenger side and that's when the driver started harassing me there," she said.
She said two women pulled up next to her, and she took their picture. We blurred their faces as the police continue to investigate.
"They're tapping on my window and they're laughing at me," she said.
They were trying to get in her lane, but there was nowhere to go. Pacheco said that made them even angrier, that the woman pushed in her side view mirror.
Then she pulled over to try to fix it.
"The girl turns around like, 'What are you gonna do about it?' She starts approaching me, and I'm like, 'I don't want to do anything about it,'" she said.
They cornered her in the alley. No one flagged down police. Because of the gridlock she didn't even try calling 911.
"It took a homeless man to break up the fight," she said. "Out of all the cars, all the cars, everybody was seeing this. Nobody stopped it. Nobody flagged down the police. I was just right there."
She drove herself -- while she could barely see -- to the hospital.
Less than 24 hours later the intersection was quiet, but her memories were on replay.
"I'm actually kind of scared to even come back here," she said.
At the top of her mind was a plea to the city for proactive road closures.
"Mexican Independence Day is every year, you know, don't be, 'Oh it's so last minute.' No plan this ahead," she said.
Police are missing her assailants' license plate number. She's asking anyone who took video to send that video to Chicago Police.