CHICAGO — A man who police say punched a 67-year-old woman in the face while she read her Kindle on the Red Line is now being held without bail.
The unprovoked attack on the unsuspecting woman was caught on surveillance camera, and police circulated high-res photos of the attacker, who police say was Derrick McMath, 28.
At 12:05 p.m. Thursday, the 67-year-old woman was riding a northbound Red Line train and reading on her Kindle when a man walked up to her. The man “viciously punched” the woman, badly wounding her eye, police said.
Officials said the attack was unprovoked, and the man got off the train at the Jarvis stop. The woman was treated at a hospital and will need surgery to remove her eye, according to the Chicago Tribune.
At 2:44 p.m. the next day, McMath walked into a business in the 2000 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and tried to steal a pair of shoes, police said. McMath was arrested, and the arresting officers recognized him as the man who had punched the woman on the Red Line, police said.
McMath has been charged with aggravated battery and retail theft, police said. He appeared in court Sunday and was denied bail, according to the Tribune.