A Hoffman Estates man accused of attacking DePaul University students who were showing support for Israel on campus was ordered held awaiting trial Thursday.
Adam Erkan, 20, was charged with two felony counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, Chicago police said. The alleged attack happened on Nov. 6 outside the DePaul student center in the 2200 block of North Sheffield Avenue in Lincoln Park.
Erkan, a Triton College student with no previous criminal history, was captured on surveillance video arriving near the campus about an hour before the attack without the ski mask he was later accused of wearing during the attack, prosecutors said.
Then donning a ski mask, Erkan allegedly approached Max Long, who was wearing a sign that said “Come talk about Israel with an IDF soldier” and a sweater that said “Curb your anti-semitism.” Prosecutors said Long had been standing outside the student center and engaging passersby every Wednesday for two months. After talking with Long and the other victim, Michael Kaminsky, for several minutes, prosecutors said Erkan told the two that Palestine had been “wrongly occupied” before another suspect, who has not been charged, punched Long in his head, knocking him unconscious.
Kaminsky, who was wearing a necklace that said “Bring them home,” tried to intervene when Erkan allegedly pulled him off the other two and pushed him to the ground, prosecutors said. Erkan and the other suspect then fled in different directions while a campus safety officer called emergency services. The other suspect’s clothes were later found in a nearby dumpster.
Police contacted Erkan’s father in February after they identified him as the owner of the car Erkan arrived in. Erkan’s father identified his son in surveillance video captured prior to the attack, prosecutors said.
Erkan’s lawyer and father both declined to speak with reporters.
During a pretrial hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge James Costello said he was factoring in recent changes to the pretrial monitoring system, but that Erkan and his uncharged co-defendant’s use of ski masks were a “universal sign of aggression,” and that he presented a clear and present threat to the victims and community at large.
“What I have before me is a concentrated plan to commit a violent crime against people who said who they are,” Costello said. “This could happen again with the legally required unrestricted movement.”
Erkan is due back in court April 22.
“We are also relieved to hear that Mr. Erkan will remain in custody for the time being, and that the streets of Chicago are safer today because of it,” the Lawfare Project, which is representing the students, said in a statement. “We also expect that law enforcement will continue to thoroughly investigate and apprehend and charge Erkan’s co-conspirator. The felony charges and pretrial confinement speak to the seriousness of this attack, and we look forward to obtaining justice for Max and Michael.”
Long and Kaminsky sued DePaul earlier this month, saying the university was negligent and failed to protect their safety while on campus.
Long suffered a concussion, and Kaminsky fractured his wrist during the attack, the complaint states. A DePaul Public Safety officer was also present but failed to intervene, according to the lawsuit.
These aren’t the first hate crime charges related to Israel and Palestinian protests near the city.
Skokie resident Zevulen Ebert, 33, originally faced hate crime charges after he pepper-sprayed several protesters, a Chicago police officer providing backup and a Chicago Sun-Times reporter at the scene of a counterprotest outside an Israel solidarity event in October 2023.
Ebert originally faced two charges of aggravated battery with hate crime enhancements, though he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor aggravated battery charge without a hate crime enhancement in January, according to court documents. He was ordered to pay $1,124 in fines and put under two years of court supervision.
Prosecutors declined to charge another man after he fired a shot in the air near the counterprotest that night, saying he “acted in self-defense.”
Contributing: Emmanuel Camarillo, Mohammad Samra