Charges Filed Against Division Street Stabbings Suspect
Updated 09/24/12 - 6:14 p.m.
CHICAGO (STMW)-- A Belmont-Cragin neighborhood man was ordered held on $100,000 bond Monday for allegedly injuring four men -- including a Chicago Police officer -- in a pair of early Sunday stabbings in the Gold Coast.
Eric F. Ybarra, 24, of the 2200 block of North Major Avenue, was charged with felony aggravated battery and misdemeanor resisting a peace officer, police said. Ybarra was also wanted on a warrant.
On Monday, Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos-Cecil ordered Ybarra held on $100,000 bond, said Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin. Diaz will be back in North Felony Court (Br. 42) on Oct. 1.
Diaz is accused of injuring three men and a police officer early Sunday.
The men — 31 and 36 — were critically injured in a stabbing, a third man was beaten and a police officer injured while trying to arrest Ybarra, who allegedly injured the others about 4 a.m. outside Bootleggers and Detention night clubs at 11 W. Division and 9 W. Division, according to police.
The men were walking west on Division when a confrontation ensued with Ybarra, who pulled a knife and stabbed two men, then battered a third, who was the brother of one of the stabbing victims, police said.
All three men were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The police officer refused hospitalization, police said.
Bars on the block were jammed when the stabbings occurred. A bouncer working across the street from the where the confrontation erupted said he didn't notice anything until police began to cordon off the crime scene. "There were just so many people on the street," the bouncer said.
Violence on the block is becoming an "increasing concern," said a local tavern manager who asked not to be named.
"When I started here five years ago this was a totally safe neighborhood -- this sort of thing might happen once in a blue moon. Now it's several times a year," said the manager,
Vern Broder, president of the Gold Coast Neighbors Association, who added there is a constant police presence in the area.
"The police are there all the time. I know they are there all the time. We work with them carefully on their patrols, in uniform and undercover," Broder said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
