Great Dane Helps Stop Sex Attack In Logan Square

By Anna Deem in News on Jan 9, 2011 7:30PM

On Thursday afternoon, a man walking his dog in Logan Square ended up preventing a 14-year-old girl from being sexually attacked, police said. As the girl got off the Diversey Avenue bus just after 5 p.m., she noticed a man--later identified as Larry E. Smith--following her. He allegedly ran up to her, threw her on the ground, and began to forcibly remove her clothing and his pants. She screamed and the man and his Great Dane ran over to her. "They came running over and the offender took off," Shakespeare District police Capt. Marc Buslik told the Chicago Sun-Times. "But the neighbor and the dog cornered him in the alley." The man and his dog kept Smith in the alley until police arrived. Smith, 28, was charged with attempted criminal sexual assault and already had a police record, including a 2009 conviction for public indecency. The 14-year-old was not seriously injured.