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Illinois college student speaks out after alleged hate crime at Quincy bar
A local college student says she was seriously hurt in a racially charged attack at a bar in Quincy, Ill.
QUINCY, Ill. - A Quincy, Illinois bar and restaurant owner has been charged with aggravated battery after a 19-year-old college student said he attacked her at his establishment earlier this month, officials said.
Steven Homan is accused of putting his arm around Jazzpher Evans' neck and dragging her out of the bar and restaurant on April 4.
Evans says she was talking to a friend near the DJ booth at a downtown Quincy bar on April 4 when she was violently thrown up against a wall, placed in a chokehold and eventually lost consciousness.
The Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Quincy Police Department investigated the incident and announced the aggravated battery charge on Wednesday.
The Adams County State's Attorney's Office said, in part, that Homan "committed the offense of aggravated battery...without legal justification and while Jazzpher Evans was on or about a public place of accommodation or amusement."
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"While the news of charges spark hope, we remain relentless in our pursuit that Steven Homan is held fully accountable for his wrongdoing and the trauma he inflicted on Jazzpher," an attorney for the student said.
Jazzpher Evans, a former star athlete at Joliet West, is a freshman at Quincy College and a guard on the school's basketball team.
A peaceful rally and march is scheduled for Saturday, April 17 at Washington Park in Quincy, Illinois at 2:00 p.m. to raise awareness.