Jimmy Harris, 56, had been freed from prison just eight days earlier.
Harris, who has past gang ties, has at least 60 arrests and nine felony convictions dating to the late 1970s
Harris, who was living at the Pacific Garden Mission homeless shelter since his release from prison, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint for the attack on Dr. Mir Jafar Shah and a bartender Saturday night after the Lights Festival attended by tens of thousands along the Magnificent Mile.
After an evening out with family to watch the festival, Shah, a suburban oncologist, went into the bathroom inside the Chicago Westin's Grill on the Alley restaurant, where Harris approached him from behind and announced a robbery. Harris stabbed the doctor in the right side of his neck and face, Scaduto said, and as the victim turned and started screaming for help, Harris punched him in the eye.
Shah tried to grab Harris' arms to "prevent him from cutting" him any further and tried to pull Harris out of the bathroom so his cries for help could be heard. Shah was finally able to break free and run back into the restaurant.
Moments later, witnesses saw Harris leaving the hotel with blood on his hands and clothes and holding a knife. The bartender at the restaurant chased Harris out the door and tried to stop him on the street, but Harris turned and stabbed him once in the chest.
Harris was arrested in a bathroom at the nearby Cheesecake Factory restaurant, where police recovered a bloody knife.
Shah remained in Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Monday with what prosecutors said were stab wounds to the neck and face and blurry vision from the punch to the eye. The bartender was released from the hospital after receiving stitches for the chest wound.
Harris' latest arrest came a day after he attended the Summit of Hope event at Malcolm X College, where social service officials offer assistance to former offenders in an attempt to help them "reintegrate safely into society," according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Harris was released from prison Nov. 9 after a 2007 armed robbery in which authorities said Harris stole and later broke several bottles of rum from a Near West Side grocery. While trying to escape, according to court records, Harris used the glass shards to cut a store security guard.
5 comments:
That's one useless monkey!
A waste!
But wait he still has rights. What a country we live in they should hang him like they did in the past
Some people have absolutely no way of being rehabilitated..... I did time in prison once.70% of the inmates said they didnt want to come back but u knew by there actions that they would. The other 30% said the same thing but meant it.. I fall into the latter. They really need to make seperate prisons..... One for the animals and one for the people that actually want to better themselves. I have been out since 2006 and the only contact with the police I've had was for a seatbelt ticket.... I work full time, pay taxes and actually found a job that I enjoy doing that pays well... I know this type of inmate well... He has no one sending him money from the outside, and once he's released has no one to turn for help or any type of family structure... These are the worst offenders, cause they just dont give a dam about anyone or anything....
I agree with last comment. That guy had a destiny and it was not living on the outside. Like you said some cannot be rehabilitated as they are to far gone. Hopelesness is sad....very....
Post a Comment