Chicago’s top cop addressed the department’s handling of the recent sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Washington Park last week among comments regarding crime over the holiday weekend.
In Tuesday’s press conference, police confirmed a detective was assigned to the case and that a person has been identified as a suspect.
Brown added that the department has been “working with the family” on the case and that police are working to build a strong case for the State’s Attorney’s Office.
According to officials, the girl, a 6th grader at Dulles Elementary, was grabbed and sexually assaulted in an alley Thursday in the 6200 block of S. Indiana Avenue as she walked home from school.
Lissy Wakefield, the girl’s mother, told NBC 5 that community members identified a man who matched the description Wakefield gave to officials following the assault. According to Wakefield, on Monday, those community members apparently held the man until police arrived on the scene, and he was taken to a local hospital. She says her daughter identified the man as police arrived.
“My daughter identified him. It is 100 percent him,” Wakefield said. “The same man who was taking her clothes off. Who laid her on the ground…smelling her neck. That is him.”
However, Chicago police are not confirming the family’s account.
Beyond confirming that an individual has been identified as a suspect and that police had been in contact with the family, officials offered no further details.
Police told NBC 5 that no one is currently in custody, and said that no individual had been questioned in the case. Police did not provide any other details about Monday’s incident.
Tuesday, Wakefield and other family members held a press conference in front of Chicago Police headquarters, demanding that the suspect community members identified on Monday be held without bail.
“According to the mother of the victim, a Chicago police detective told her the accused was released without charge, pending further investigation,” a media release about the press conference said.
A $4,000 reward organized by community activists is being offered for information leading to an arrest.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/dAW1iFU
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