Jun 30, 2009 10:49 pm US/Central
Doctor Fights Off Armed Attacker In Her Office
Assailant Stabs Doctor In Thigh
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A man, pictured here in surveillance footage, armed with a knife, grabbed a doctor who was alone in her office, placed the weapon to her throat and forced her to the floor.
Chicago Police Dept.
A doctor fought off an man who attacked her in her office, wounding the man with his own weapon--a knife he used to stab the woman in her thigh. Now police are looking for the assailant, who has some suspicious looking cuts on his hands.
Fighting back: that's what women across Chicago are learning to do if it ever becomes necessary.
And it's exactly what a Lakeview doctor was able to do Monday night in her own office.
"It's awesome. That's why we're all here, to protect ourselves and to be able to get away alive," said martial arts student Sue Lohman, who takes a martial arts class at Degerberg Academy.
The attack happened at 6:40 p.m. in the mental health doctor's leased space in St. Joseph Hospital's professional building on the 2900 block of North Commonwealth Avenue in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.
Police say the man walked into her top floor office, put a knife to her throat and forced her to the floor, attempting to sexually assault her.
But police say the doctor was able to get the knife away from her attacker and fight back, even thought she had already been stabbed in the leg. She fought back enough to cut both her attacker's hands, leaving noticeable defensive wounds.
Not everyone who works in the building or hospital had heard of the attack.
"It does concern me, definitely. I'll try to look into it and try to know exactly what happened," said. St. Joseph Hospital Resident Dr. Kosha Kamani.
But some who had say they still feel secure.
"It's an upsetting thing, but I think overall I feel very safe at the hospital," said building employee Arleen Trapani. "I think we have a good security department, and we take a lot of measures to keep people safe."
But hearing about attacks like this one only makes most of the students in the martial arts class work even harder.
"We've had a couple of women here, too, who have had incidents where they've had to protect themselves, and they did and the attackers ran off, so I know it works," said martial arts instructor Angela Gibson.
Police say the attacker took off with the doctor's cell phone, leaving her SIM card behind. They have released a surveillance photo that they hope will help lead to his arrest.
A hospital spokesperson says they've beefed up security in the building but are not commenting further.
The incident is being investigated as an attempted criminal sexual assault.
The suspect is described as a black male, between 20 and 30 years old, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, 145 to 160 pounds last seen wearing a black and white checkered or plaid shirt and blue jeans, police said. He was also carrying a dark-colored, single-strap backpack.
Belmont Area detectives are investigating.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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