WEST LOOP — Police released photos of a man they say tried to kidnap a woman Sunday in the West Loop — the second attempted kidnapping on that block in the past month.
The attempted kidnapping happened about 8:45 a.m. Sunday in the 200 block of South Sangamon Street. A woman was walking when a man in a red Dodge Plymouth minivan pulled over, got out and tried to force her into the car, police said.
The woman was able to fight off the man until a ridershare passenger intervened, police and the woman said.
Just a few minutes later, the man suspected in the attack was caught on video at the Jackson Red Line station, police said.
The man is bald, Black and 30-40 years old, police said. He is 5-foot-8 to 6-feet tall and wore a white, baggy sweatshirt with black writing on the front, light blue pajama pants and black gym shoes, police said.
A video provided to Block Club by a neighbor who witnessed the attempted abduction shows a driver attempting to block in the red minivan with their car, but the minivan driver was able to sneak out of its parking spot and drive down Sangamon Street.
Police found the minivan but are still searching for the attacker, they said.
Neighbors said the attacker crashed on Van Buren Street and ran away. A police spokesman could not confirm those details.
The incident is at least the second attempted kidnapping on the same stretch of Sangamon Street in the past month.
About 7:30 a.m. Aug. 24, four people in a sedan drove up to a 30-year-old woman in the block. One of the passengers got out and tried to coax the woman into the car, but a dog walker sprayed bear spray at the man and the driver and passengers left.
The dog walker said the attacker in that attempted kidnapping was in his mid-20s and about 6 feet tall.
Neither woman was harmed.
At a news conference Monday, Rahman Muhammad, deputy chief of detectives, said police don’t think the two attempted kidnappings are connected.
While the Sunday attempt involved a single attacker, the August incident involved at least three, Muhammad said. The suspect from Sunday has a different description than the August incident and was driving a different car.
“We don’t believe those two are related based upon the victim’s accounts,” Muhammad said. “We haven’t ruled it out, but we are thinking that they are not related.”
Police asked anyone with information to call detectives at 312-744-8261. Anonymous tips can be submitted to cpdtips.com.