Venezuelan man to remain in custody in connection with West Loop attack
CHICAGO — A Venezuelan man accused in a brutal assault in the West Loop in April will remain in custody, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Jheison Lazaro, 19, is scheduled to be back in court on June 4. A grand jury will determine if he’ll go to trial on charges that include kidnapping with force of threat, aggravated battery in a public place and unlawful restraint in connection with an April 14 attack.
In court, Lazaro told the judge in court that he is originally from Venezuela and has been in Chicago for seven months. Court records indicate he was on pretrial release on a retail theft charge at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors allege that Lazaro approached a woman near Randolph and Carpenter streets at about 5:30 that morning as she was going to take a friend to an airport. As the woman was on the phone with her friend, Lazaro is alleged to have grabbed her with one hand over her mouth and another on her waist as she was dragged into an alley. The woman dropped the phone and was able to bite her attacker’s index finger. She was then thrown to the ground and left with bruising on her cheek, hand, elbow, and knee. The attacker didn’t take anything from the victim. She filed a police report after taking her friend to the airport.
A surveillance image of a suspect was released shortly after the attack.
Lazaro was arrested last Wednesday near North Sangamon & West Lake street by officers with the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshall’s Great Lakes Regional fugitive task force armed with an I-Clear photo identifying him, a statement said.
Authorities had received a tip from someone who knew him from an area shelter.
Lazaro, who has no prior misdemeanor or felony convictions, said he arrived in Chicago from Venezuela on October 10. The news organization CWB Chicago pointed to a September report by Scripps News in which a man named Jheison Lazaro complained about crime along his travels from Venezuela to Texas.
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