River North residents fed up with increasing crime: 'We're moving out'
CHICAGO - River North residents say they’re becoming fed up with increasing crime, including a brutal stabbing attack inside a bank Wednesday and the vicious beating of two men in the middle of State Street last weekend.
"I saw a guy with a knife, a pretty big knife, with blood on it and he was running with a head of steam," said an eyewitness to the attack, who did not want to be identified.
It happened inside the Chase Bank at Dearborn and Ohio in River North around 11 a.m.
"He was pretty upset and he was saying for all the words about Chicago and the police," the eyewitness said.
Witnesses say the man was screaming at pedestrians and appeared to be mentally unstable when he walked into the bank and without warning began stabbing a 24-year-old female employee in the neck.
Paramedics rushed the woman to Northwestern Memorial Hospital just blocks away in critical condition, as police officers scrambled throughout River North to find the attacker, still wielding a bloody knife.
"We walked down the block and to see that poor woman coming out on a gurney with blood coming all over her. It’s just frightening," said River North resident Jodi Noble.
Chicago police say they are questioning a suspect in the attack.
It’s the second high-profile attack in River North this week. Early Saturday morning, police surveillance cameras captured the vicious beatings of two men in the middle of State Street near Illinois.
"Well I got a broken nose, cheekbone, my right eye was hemorrhaging. Lacerated kidney. Concussion," said 55-year-old Edwin Barone, a chef at a downtown restaurant.
He was one of the men beaten and robbed of his wallet by three attackers while more than a dozen onlookers stood by watching.
"Nobody helped me. There was a crowd of people and they’re all watching me get beat up and nobody helped me," Barone said. "I hope me coming forward will help them police this area better. Because these people pay good money to live here."
All of the recent crime is having an impact. A couple who moved to River North from the suburbs three years ago say they’re selling and moving to Florida.
"We’re moving out. We’re in the process of moving as we speak," said Michael Noble, who moved to the neighborhood from Schaumburg with his wife when they became empty-nesters. "I just can’t put up with this anymore. I mean for what? To what end?"