'I Was Screaming: "Please, Stop, Stop!"' Woman Describes Pain And Horror As She Was Brutally Beaten By Group Of Teens Downtown This Past Weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A woman was begging for her attackers to stop, but they just kept swinging – punching her in the face.
Days after the Chicago woman was thrown to the ground by a group of teen assailants downtown, she talked only to CBS 2's Jermont Terry.
The woman and her boyfriend were on their way to the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line subway at State Street and Jackson Boulevard Saturday night. They were waiting for the elevator at ground level to go down to the platform.
But they never made it. Instead, trouble found them, surrounded them, and attacked them.
"I was screaming: 'Please, stop, stop!'" the woman said.
The woman screamed in desperation as she was attacked around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
"If this area is not safe, where are the cops?" the woman said. "I'm surprised, like this happening in the Loop. I heard the Loop is a nice place."
But after coming downtown for a date and then being attacked by the group of teens, the woman has been left severely injured.
"I need plastic surgery, because the bones are broke, and still bleeding inside," the woman said.
The scars and bruising are concealed behind the shades the woman now wears over her eyes. But the pain is deeper.
"I was saying, 'Why?' Asking, 'Why did you do that to me?'" the woman said.
Two male attackers initially approached the woman's boyfriend. He ignored them, and they clocked him over the head from behind.
"Then I said: 'Uh-oh, that's not safe. We have to run. Then I ran. They're chasing. There came more - like seven or nine. They kept chasing me," the woman said.
Video from an Uber driver passing by picks up in the middle of the attack. The woman said teenage girls were throwing punches too.
"The girl, she take me from my hair, pulled me down," the woman said. "I couldn't see anything, or how many was hitting me. They just kept punching me in my face harder."
The video shows the woman collapse in the middle of the street. Her boyfriend tried pulling her to safety, but she said she was disoriented.
"The one thing I was thinking about is, I need to save my life," the woman said.
During the attack, a rideshare driver told the man and woman to jump in.
Terry: "Had it not been for that Uber driver having compassion?"
Woman: "They're going to continue to hurt us."
The woman is furious to know there were four other attacks by the same group – and despite police arresting some, it was disheartening to know that as of Wednesday night, no one was in custody.
"Maybe because they're teenagers? I don't know," the woman said. "I don't have no idea."
But the woman is pushing for charges, and wants the attackers prosecuted to the fullest extent – because, she says, the pain and fear they inflicted is not the action of mere mischievous juveniles.
