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Community leaders demand action from CPS after Chicago girl sexually assaulted on way home from school
Days after an 11-year-old Washington Park girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted on her way home from Dulles Elementary School, community leaders gathered to demand action from Chicago Public Schools.
CHICAGO - The family of an 11-year-old girl who was assaulted on her way home from school, provided information about the investigation during a news conference outside Chicago Police Headquarters.
They say a man who fit the description was questioned, and released to the community.
They believe he was the girl’s attacker.
Police asked the public to be on the lookout for this man, about 5 feet-8, with dark skin, wearing a torn shirt.
The 11-year-old girl remembered details about the attacker’s looks, how he sounded and that he smelled like baby powder.
She was on her way home from Dulles Elementary last Thursday when she was forced into an alley near 62nd and Indiana. She tried to fight him off.
She told FOX 32 the man’s phone rang and he answered. She kicked him in the face and ran away.
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Neighbors reportedly found a man that matched the description, wandering in the same alley. They held him until police picked him up and sent a picture of him to the girl’s family.
The girl’s grandmother, Lutia Payne Midcalf, showed the picture to her granddaughter.
"She looked at the picture and said, ‘Oh my God, it’s him.’ She started crying, and we had to hold her up."
The girl’s mother, Lissy Wakefield said her daughter was traumatized.
"She’s not herself, not on TikTok anymore. She has nightmares," the mother said.
The family says they were told, because the girl saw the picture before making a positive identification of the suspect, the case was compromised, and the man was released from a hospital.
They want justice from the police, the mayor and Cook County state’s attorney.
In a news conference at police headquarters, Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan, said the man is still considered a suspect and police are working with the State’s Attorney’s office to build a case.