3 held in apparent new downtown mob attack

At least two young men said they were attacked by a group of at least five youths downtown Tuesday evening just west of North Michigan Avenue.

A witness described the attack as similar to last weekend’s mob-action incidents downtown for which more than 20 other youths were arrested, including five who allegedly robbed and beat several people in Streeterville and on the Magnificent Mile.
Chicago police would not immediately categorize Tuesday night’s attack as mob action-related, but said three people were in custody in connection with the incident, which happened about 8:30 p.m. near Chicago and Wabash avenues.

One of the victims, a 16-year-old boy, told the Tribune during a very brief interview that his wallet was snatched from behind by a group of youths, prompting him and his friend to chase them on foot.

The 16-year-old, whom the Tribune is not naming because he’s a minor, said he tripped and fell at one point during the foot chase. The culprits, he said, eventually stopped and started attacking him and his friend.

“Three of them hit him, about two of them hit me … one gave me a kick to the face,” said the 16-year-old victim.

But that didn’t prevent the teen and his friend from trying to fight back.

“Me and him got back up, started chasing them again, and three of them were on him,” the 16-year-old said. “So, I ran up. I hit one (of the attackers) and then I got cracked in the face again with a kick.”

A little more than a minute into the interview, officers summoned the 16-year-old, his friend and one or two of their other friends into a squad car. It then drove off from the scene along with a police van, which was transporting one person who might have played a role in the attack.

The 16-year-old victim didn’t appear seriously hurt, but one of the people that joined him in the squad car had bloody lips.

The mugging happened down the street from a McDonald’s restaurant at Chicago and State Street, which has seen at least one recent mob action incident when a group of about 70 youths stormed it and created a disturbance in April, closing it for nearly three hours.

In February, Loyola University Chicago warned its Water Tower campus students and staffers about "flash mobs" -- a group of people who assemble via text-messaging or social-networking Web sites like Facebook or Twitter -- who would exit from Chicago Avenue's CTA Red Line station and allegedly steal items from retail stores around the campus.