So, yesterday I was going back to the train station after work, walking along the river as I usually do. I was across the street from 33 W. Wacker, the building my Godi used to work in located just as Wacker is curving from an east/west to a north/south street. All of a sudden I hear a woman about 12 feel in front of me and on the opposite side of the planter boxes start shrieking, and see a man walking away muttering something like, "you dumb bitch, you know what you done."
For a split second no one really knew what was going on - I started to think that it was a was weird place for a domestic disturbance, but that wasn't it. An apparently homeless man hauled off and hit a woman walking back to her train. She'd never seen him before. He left a gash above her left eye that had to be over 1/2 an inch long.
Passers by came in and immediately started doing what they could for this woman - about 5 people started calling 9-1-1, I called her husband for her but he didn't pick up, a firefighter who happened to be driving by drove up onto the sidewalk and had her start applying pressure to her wound. Fortunately someone managed to follow the guy who hit her and get him pinned, and another woman who was out running followed them and came back to where this was happening to say that man who'd pinned the guy down needed some backup until the cops arrived.
I'm not quite sure as to what the eventual outcome was - since I didn't actually see it happen (I was walking on the narrow strip of sidewalk between the street and planter box, so there was a small tree blocking my view) and since there were plenty of others who had seen it happen, and who had seen the guy, I decided to get going once the cops and ambulance were arriving. I figured I'd done everything I could to help and I'm pretty firm on getting out of the way of emergency personnel.
Still, it's just a little scary. Last week there was another incident of a homeless person randomly grabbing a man and holding him at knife point. It was in the middle of the day, in the north part of the Loop, in a spot that I'd walked past 20 minutes prior to the occurrence.
Not that this could've prevented what I saw yesterday, but I was going to start looking into self-defense classes to bring in to work this fall. That's just moved way up on my priority list.
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6 comments:
Self defense classes sound like a good idea! Thank goodness so many people were nice enough to help the lady!
i'm not saying that this is what ws going on but there was a front-page article in the Enquirer last week about hte rise of homeless people going to jail. apparenty the economy is hurting their pan-handling and many of htem feel that jail is a steady stream of heat/air conditioning, food and shelter. In Cincinnati 8 of the 10 individuals in jail most frequently (one over 200 times) are homeless. eek!
No, I think this guy was mentally disturbed. I recognized him, and have seen him walking down the street muttering to himself before.
I've heard of the jail option before - it's really sad. There's help out there, though for people who want to work and maintain their dignity, though.
This is scary! I found myself worrying that it would happen to you. You should definitely be careful! I know that you are "citywise" but these kind of things happen even to people who are experienced. It was nice of you to help.
I agree you should get into some self defense class pronto! I have read quite a bit of research on the alarming number of homeless people who are mentally ill or emotionally disturbed, so these types of incidents don't really surprise me. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to hear about all the people who jumped in to help out. Nice little warm fuzzy.
That is scary. Kudos to you, and everyone else, for helping. I think it's very smart of you to take self defence classes. For some reason women are more vulnerable, so I think it's great you're ensuring that not only you have the street smarts, but also the skills should anything happen. I haven't taken self defense courses since college. Probably smart for some refreshers (although I have been picking up my running and endurance, but that'll only help if I have a head start or are faster - not likely - than an attacker.).
Again, kudos to you for helping! That's awesome!! :)
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