She can’t stop picturing the faces of the attackers who targeted her last week in Jefferson Park, not just once, but twice. She can’t shake the feeling of a gun pressed against her head.
It’s left her constantly on edge, and though she’s tried to go back to work, the Northwest Side woman said she’s decided to take some time to seek counseling, because she can’t stop trembling.
“I still have fear, I have them in my head every day.” the 34-year-old woman said in Spanish. “I look normal, but I’m not; this is a difficult situation.”
The violent robbery happened just after 4 a.m. Jan. 29 as the woman walked to catch a train that would take her to the Near West Side, where she works at a restaurant.
Because the woman is a crime victim, the Sun-Times is not identifying her for her safety.
The restaurant worker was near the intersection of Lawrence and Lotus avenues when a dark-colored sedan approached, and several people jumped out with guns, police said.
One person struck her twice in the back of her head with the butt of the gun and told her “give me everything, your coat, cell, money, credit cards,” according to the police report.
The robbers were “laughing while this all happened,” the report said. The woman said they were “mocking” her. The group attacked her once and then circled back and targeted her again to get her to unlock her phone.
“I thought they were going to kill me when they came back the second time,” she said.
The 34-year-old said there was only one thing on her mind as she was being attacked. “I only thought about my girl,” she said. Her daughter is 12.
Video footage of the incident shows three people surrounding the woman while another person stands off to the side.
She handed over her belongings, and the group returned to their car and drove away.
As this was happening, the woman told police a CTA bus approached and the driver witnessed the robbery, according to the report. The woman attempted to get onto the bus, but the driver continued on without stopping, according to the report.
The video footage shows the woman waving down the CTA bus after the robbers fled the first time, chasing the bus down the street as it drives past.
The woman said she’s sure the bus driver saw her, because she was practically banging on the door. “It did hurt me a lot that the person on the bus didn’t help me,” the 34-year-old mother said. “It wouldn’t have cost them anything to help me.”
“While this incident did not involve CTA, the CTA is assisting the Chicago Police Department with video from the bus as we always provide support for their investigations,” the agency said in a statement.
Under CTA policy, bus drivers are permitted to stop for passengers only at designated stops.
The woman also attempted to flag down two cars, but neither one stopped. She said she doesn’t fault them for not stopping because the drivers might have been on their way to work and didn’t want to get involved.
On the video, she is shown returning to the sidewalk, and a minute later, the robbers’ vehicle returns. She kneels on the ground as one jumps out of the vehicle and strikes her.
The woman said the attackers were wearing masks when they first attacked her, but uncovered their faces when they returned.
Two of the robbers then stood on either side of her, pointing guns at her temples, while the other stood in front and told her to enter the security code on her phone, the report said. She obliged and the group again fled down Lawrence. Police said no arrests have been reported.
Left without her only way to call for help, the woman was forced to walk back home alone in the dark.
The woman, who immigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico, became a U.S. citizen in October. She and her husband have lived on the Northwest Side since 2018.
They first moved there because they thought it was a safe area. She said some of her neighbors are in law enforcement.
“Maybe I was a bit overconfident,” the woman said. “It never went through my head that something like this could happen to me.”
And though she’s still deeply shaken by the incident, the woman sees a future where she again feels normal.
“I think it will get better,” the woman said. “One day.”
