Humboldt Park Cyclist Attacked By Machete-Wielding Man; Another Man Filmed Attack
By Jon Graef in News on Mar 30, 2014 8:30PM
A cyclist who lives in Humboldt Park was attacked by two men early last Saturday, March 22, one of whom wielded a machete, the other a video camera so the assault could be recorded. The assailant recording the assault was reportedly laughing.
The attacked occurred in the 2500 block of West Potomac Avenue. The Humboldt Park cyclist, who has identified himself as a man in his thirties, but has otherwise remained anonymous, gave this account of the incident on Reddit:
On Saturday (March 22, 2014) at 3am I was riding my bike home in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. I saw two teenagers come out of the alley and it was immediately apparent they were coming for me. The next thing I realized was that one of the kids had a machete. The machete wielder ran directly at me and hit the back tire of my bike with the knife. It stopped my bike on impact - shattering my fender and slicing through both tube and tire.The next thing I remember was being punched directly in the face but I didn't go down. That's when I realized I was being filmed and the camera-kid was laughing. I assumed I would be robbed of everything I had on me but instead the machete wielder hit my bike again in the rear wheel and shouted at me to "get the f#$% out of here". Somewhat relieved I left as fast as I could (on a broken down bike, mind you). In my departure the machete wielder hit my bike two or three more times. I got home 10 minutes later and called the police. They were unable to find the perpetrators but I filed a report.
The cyclist described his alleged assailants as two men who appeared to be African-American teens. The Humboldt Park cyclist's story was picked up by both DNAinfo and the Sun-Times.
Police have yet to find the alleged assailants.