Surveillance video shows two men getting beaten and robbed over the weekend in the middle of the street in River North as onlookers danced.
Police responded about six minutes after the attack began early Saturday morning in the 400 block of North State Street, but by then both men were lying on the pavement, their cell phones, wallets, even shoes stolen.
The video, first posted by the crime website CWB Chicago, initially shows three men beating up another man as traffic crawls past. Another man walks by and is sucker-punched and falls to the pavement.
The group keeps attacking the other man until both are down on the pavement. The attackers then rummage through their pockets, walking with a bag, shoes and other items, the video shows.
Women dance in the street while people appear to record the fight.
Police Supt. David Brown was asked at a Monday news conference about the delayed response to the attack in the busy downtown area.
“There were officers on walking beats nearby. From our preliminary review it took about six minutes to get there,” Brown said. “Not everyone was cooperative. As you’ve seen, it was a very chaotic scene. And we’ll have to follow up and hopefully it will lead to an arrest.”
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said the video “speaks for itself.”
“There was some sort of altercation where three males were beating up another male, and a separate male walked by and he was assaulted as well. And then some items were taken,” he said.
Deenihan said on Monday that detectives had created a bulletin with photos and descriptions of the suspects that would be shared with the public. But a police spokesperson said Tuesday that the department’s media office has not yet received a bulletin from detectives.
