A picture that circulated on social media connected two women who were punched during unprovoked attacks near Union Station and a Metra station near Rate Field, they told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Lynsy Howard, 36, of the Near West Side, was walking east on Jackson Boulevard on the afternoon of Sept. 20 with a friend.
On a crosswalk near Union Station, the two walked past a man who Howard said “did not come off as intimidating.”
Then she felt a blow to her head.
“Something just flew to my head,” Howard said. “I blacked out for a few seconds.”
Howard said the man, who she realized had hit her, walked off casually and did not run until her friend yelled about calling the police.
“I was kind of in shock initially. It was not rational at all,” she said. The hit left a red bruise on Howard’s face that took days to go away.
Howard said her friend — who followed the attacker — managed to snap a picture of the man. She later shared the photo with Chicago police.
That photo, which was included on an internal police memo obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, would prove to be a key thread connecting Howard to another woman who suffered a similar fate about a week later.
The other woman, 26, of Orland Park, declined to share her name. She said she was carrying her bike off a Metra train at the 35th Street station near Rate Field around 8 p.m. Friday.
According to a Chicago police report, officers responded to a call of a person with a knife and spoke with a train conductor who said the attacker ran away.
The woman told police she was rolling her bicycle while wearing headphones and heard someone say: “Watch the f – – – out where you are going,” according to the report.
When she told him she was sorry, he said: “Shut the f – – – up b – – – -” and punched her in her face, according to the report.
She felt a “hit” to her jaw, and bracing the pain, the woman said her first reaction was to snap a picture of the man who hit her, she told the Sun-Times.
Several bystanders also went after the person but backed off after seeing what appeared to be a knife in his hand, she said.
“All week I had been paranoid about getting punched in the face,” the woman told the Sun-Times on Wednesday. “I wasn’t expecting that to happen on the Metra.”
Howard said the two women connected over the phone after a friend saw a Facebook post made by the woman’s mother with a picture of the perpetrator in similar attire to the one who hit Howard.
The two women said they think it is possible their attacker might be the same person. As the women wait for their police investigations to proceed, they are “doing their own investigation” to find the man and alert the public, the woman said.
The Chicago Police Department told the Sun-Times Wednesday that no arrests have been made in either case. It did not respond to further questions about whether it believes the two cases were committed by the same person or a part of a larger pattern.
Metra Police, who responded to the incident at the Metra station, could not be immediately reached for comment.
According to a Sept. 24 internal police memo obtained by the Sun-Times, police are “seeking to identify” the glasses-wearing man in the picture who was identified as a “suspect” in the Union Station attack. The man in the photo was wearing a black cap, black jacket and black skinny jeans.
An Area 3 detective in charge of the Union Station attack declined to comment.
After her attack, Howard said she spent the first few days overwhelmed by support from family and friends, who sent enouraging messages and baked goods. But that positive feeling didn’t last.
Howard, who said she does not have a car and uses public transit or walks, said she now feels anxious walking alone and tries to keep a distance from passersby.
The punch to her jaw has made it painful for her to eat and yawn, the woman who was attacked at the Metra stop said.
She added that she is also spending $50 a day on ride-shares to get to and from work, as the attack has made her fearful of using public transit.
“I just have been seeing this as a trend, and I just want other people to be aware of their surroundings,” she said.
Man charged in separate punching incident
Meanwhile, Chicago police late Wednesday said a man has been charged with punching another woman in a separate incident. Derek Rucker, 37, of Blue Island, was arrested after allegedly striking a 23-year-old woman in the head Tuesday afternoon at the CTA Red Line Loyola station. He was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery in connection with the incident.