Residents Worried After Teen Beaten, Raped In Belmont-Cragin
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A teenage girl remained in critical condition on Wednesday, and a quiet Chicago neighborhood was on edge, after the girl was beaten and sexually assaulted while on her way to a bus stop.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports members of the Guardian Angels were handing out flyers on Wednesday, warning local residents about the attack Tuesday morning on a 15-year-old girl in the 2400 block of North Long Avenue in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood.
"It's very important for us to make sure that this guy gets off the street," Miguel Fuentes said.
Tuesday morning, around 6 a.m., a man struck the 15-year-old girl in the head, dragged her into a gangway, viciously attacked her, and left her for dead.
"This was a child; and then you have parents walking their kids to school just crying, and this perpetrator must be brought to justice," said community activist Andrew Holmes.
A homeowner found the victim sprawled in his back yard around 8 a.m. She was barely conscious; lying in a pool of blood, with her clothes half off. It's not exactly clear where she was first attacked.
A source tells CBS 2's Brad Edwards a specialized hound tracked a scent to a bus stop several blocks away.
Parent Tina Delia lives not far from where the girl was found.
"It's scary. I've been in the neighborhood for 24 years, and nothing like that's happened," she said.
The girl was attacked less than a block from the Safe Passage route for Northwest Middle School, at 5252 W. Palmer Ave., about five blocks away from the attack.
Wednesday morning, there were no Safe Passage monitors on the route near the scene of the attack, leaving students alarmed.
"Now I'm scared to walk by myself," Giannina Enriquez said. "What happened to that girl, it was really sad for me."
Police have not been able to interview the victim, who remained in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital. She was on her way to a bus stop on Fullerton Avenue, to catch a bus to her school, which police said is a significant distance from where she was attacked.
