Jul 28, 2008 5:20 pm US/Central
Woman Burned After Attackers Throw Liquid In Face
Victim's Daughter Believes Attackers Knew And Targeted Her
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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An unidentified caustic liquid stains a car after the liquid was poured in her eyes during a robbery in the Logan Square neighborhood.
CBS
A woman was facing plastic surgery Monday after a robbery in the Logan Square neighborhood where two assailants threw caustic liquid in her face. It was all over in less than a minute; the woman was attacked and burned so severely that she may need plastic surgery.
The three suspects were caught on videotape by surveillance cameras at a nearby apartment complex. The cameras were just installed at the building four days ago. Police said they hope it will help them crack the case.
Meantime, the victim's daughter said she believes the suspects knew her mother and targeted her specifically.
Esperanza Medina's daughter, Shirley Medina, spoke with CBS 2 News Monday afternoon.
"She's doing okay. Right now she's in stabilized condition ... She can hear, but she can't talk ... she can't open her eyes. She can nod her head a little bit. She has burns from her face, back, all the way down. Third-degree all the way down, first- and second-degree on her face," Shirley Medina said.
Asked who might want to do something like that to her mother, Shirley Medina said, "I have no idea. I mean, one person comes in mind, but I'm not sure if they even life in the city, so I can't really say if it's them or not. There is a suspect and I did tell the police, but I'm not sure if they live in Chicago."
She also said that suspect has made previous threats against her mother, including threatening voice mail messages and threats to kill Esperanza Medina's boyfriend. Shirley Medina said someone also broke into her car when she loaned it to her mother, so she believes the suspects in Monday's attack specifically targeted her mother.
At about 6:30 a.m. Monday, surveillance cameras at a building on the corner of Sacramento and Altgeld caught a car pulling onto Sacramento Avenue. Seconds later, two women carrying cups got into the car, which then drove down the street.
At Altgeld Street, the car stopped and the two women got out and ran east on Altgeld. A man who was already in the car followed them a few seconds later. The driver could have turned onto Altgeld, but chose not to.
Ruben Feliciano, the maintenance supervisor at the Hispanic Housing Development Corporation which runs the apartment complex where cameras captured the suspects, had his own ideas as to why.
"What I think is that the victim probably knows the car and whoever was driving it didn't want the victim to see the car, so he just dropped them off on Altgeld and kept going north," Feliciano said.
Out of camera range, witnesses said the women threw the cups of liquid in another woman's face while she sat in a car parked on Altgeld.
Maria Cortez said, "We heard the screams. They were really loud. The whole building was like …we all came out to see what was happening,"
Cortez's husband talked with a man who witnessed the attack. "He noticed that they threw a liquid in her face and then they took her purse."
The attack was over in seconds. The victim, Esperanza Medina, screamed loudly, took off some of her clothes and ran back to her basement apartment, as neighbors called police. The woman suffered first and second degree burns to her face and upper body. She was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was listed in serious condition.
"That is something unhuman," Feliciano said.
After the attack, the man fled west on Altgeld, then south on Sacramento, carrying something in his right hand. Then the two women followed him a few seconds later. One of them appeared to be shoving a handbag into a larger blue bag; the second woman's face appeared clearly on camera because she had her head up, although police have not yet authorized Chicago media to publish or broadcast the suspects' faces.
Witnesses said Medina's eyes were shut when she was taken away in an ambulance. A police spokesman said the woman will probably need plastic surgery.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and Joanie Lum contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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