2 machete attacks reported on Northwest Side. ‘I saw his neck and the cut was very deep.’
CHICAGO - The attack came out of nowhere: A man was out for a walk with his dog one moment, then facing the blade of a machete the next.
The man, in his 30s, is one of three people police say have been targeted in similar attacks recently in Logan Square and Belmont Cragin.
It was shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday on the 5800 block of West Altgeld Street. In an interview Thursday, his wife said he heard only a car door close before the assault, prompting him to turn around.
The attacker knocked him to the ground and took a swing, slicing open the man’s neck, said his wife, who asked not to be named.
But her husband was able to get away, stumble back to his nearby home and tap on a window until she came to his aid.
She said she opened the door and saw her husband drenched in blood from his wound.
"He couldn’t really tell me what happened because he was bleeding a lot and was very faint," she told the Sun-Times. "I was very scared."
The pair rushed to a hospital, where the woman said she got a better look at his wound.
"I thought the worst, because I saw his neck and the cut was very deep," she said.
But since then his condition has improved, and she said her husband is going to be all right and would be released from the hospital soon after receiving several stitches.
Chicago police issued an alert Wednesday warning residents of that attack, as well as two others.
Another attack occurred Saturday about 2:40 a.m. when a man walking his dog in the 2200 block of North St. Louis Avenue in Logan Square was approached from behind, struck in the head with a hammer and then chased with a machete, police said.
In a Facebook post about the incident, a man said he was walking his dog when a man in his 20s walked past him.
"Out of nowhere I’m struck in the head with something hard," the man wrote. "I’m knocked down but turn to look in confusion and this guy is holding a hammer and just looking at me. I say ‘did you just hit me in the head with a f—— hammer?!!’ "
The man was able to maintain his balance. That’s when the attacker "unsheathes a machete from a holster in his hoody," the man wrote. "Not believing what I’m seeing I scramble up and start backing off he starts after me so I book it west down the alley."
The attacker jumped in a car and sped away. The man wrote on Facebook that although he suffered a concussion and needed staples to close his head wound, he was otherwise OK.
"Point is someone was hiding out of sight with a escape vehicle ready clearly intending to do serious harm to passerby," he concluded. " … I just want to warn the neighborhood of this dangerous person."
Another attack, police said, was on Sept. 5 at about 1:10 a.m., when a man walking in the 2600 block of North Drake Avenue, again in Logan Square, was approached from behind and stabbed multiple times.
In each incident, police said, the suspect is described as a white male, between 25 and 35 years old, about 6 feet tall, clean-shaven, with a thin to average build, short brown hair and wearing a dark-colored zip-up jacket, with the weapon hidden underneath his clothing.
In two of the incidents, an older model, light-colored Toyota Camry was used to flee from the scene, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Area Five detectives at 312-746-6554.
The wife of the man attacked Wednesday said the attack left the couple — longtime area residents — in fear.
"I feel very unsafe now. Whenever I go out I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, making sure no one is going to hurt me," she said.