A group of teenagers forced a woman to have a miscarriage in a brutal attack after she and her husband dared to walk onto a Chicago street that the young people claimed was theirs.
The 41-year-old mother was returning home with her husband after a date night on Friday when they were surrounded by at least a dozen young people in the city’s infamous Streeterville neighborhood.
The woman, who gave her name only as Nina, told the story Fox32 that she was pepper sprayed in the face, kicked in the stomach and lost a strand of hair when her husband was stopped by the crowd.
‘They didn’t steal anything. They said, “We’re the boss of the street, we’re the boss of the street. You can’t just walk around in your little dress.”
“They said things that didn’t make sense to me because they didn’t know me.”
The woman photographed some of the hair that had been pulled from her head by the gang
The 41-year-old was left with a bald spot and bruises on her eye after the teen elimination
It’s been less than two weeks since residents held an emergency town hall to demand action against teenage gangs running riot in a neighborhood where attacks have risen 12 percent in the past year.
“We moved here because we thought it would be quieter,” said Streeterville resident Mark Wolfe.
“Now we have what my wife and I call the ‘Saturday night scare’ because of the kids coming in and just causing chaos.”
“Everything happened from behind us,” said the last victim.
“First someone came up to him and hit him in the head, punched him in the head, and he looked back and he looked at me and told me to ‘run.’
‘Another lady came up to me and dragged me to the ground by my hair.
“I started screaming that she started pepper spraying me right in my face and in my eyes.
“Another person started stomping over me, and my husband ran to save me and more than 10 people held him down.”
“We were just trying to get home to our child, ‘leave us alone, why are you doing this to us?’
Streeterville residents fear they are in for a summer of misery at the hands of teenage gangs who are congregating despite the 10 p.m. curfew
Councilman Brian Hopkins (left) and Chicago Police Commissioner David Koenig had faced demands to crack down on gangs at an angry city hall just two weeks earlier
Nina was two weeks pregnant at the time of Friday’s attack and lost the baby hours later.
“We believe in faith, and that was not the intention,” she said. “So we don’t know why this happened to us.”
The neighborhood rose to prominence in 2020 when celebrity Jussie Smollett committed a bizarre “racially motivated attack” on himself there, but violent crimes are on the rise in the Democratic-run city.
Aggravated battery charges are up 20 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2021, while robberies are up 38 percent and thefts are up 77 percent.
During Memorial Day weekend alone, 41 people were shot and nine died, including a five-year-old girl.
Police who arrived at the scene of the attack on Friday arrested a 14-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl.
Both have been charged with one felony count and have been released by police pending their appearance in Cook County Juvenile Court.
“We ask the prosecutor to consider upgrading this charge to felony causing great bodily harm,” said local councilman Brian Hopkins.
“Both victims suffered serious injuries and medical examinations are ongoing.”
A citywide curfew would be in effect for unaccompanied minors at 10 p.m.
Nina’s husband suffered serious cuts and bruises as he tried to defend his wife
“We’ve never had the problems we’re having in the neighborhood,” said Deborah Gershbein, president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.
But residents of the town hall say they fear the neighborhood could face a summer of misery as teenage gangs take over the streets.
‘I am concerned. I’m an older person and we don’t go out at night anymore,” Barbara Webb told ABC7.
“We’ve never had the problems we’re having in the neighborhood,” said Deborah Gershbein, president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.
“Everyone is worried because summer is just starting.”