Jul 10, 2007 7:22 am US/Central
3 Charged With Brutally Beating Homeless Man
Victim Was Beaten Downtown Sunday Night
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Authorities charged three men overnight with the brutal beating of a homeless man downtown.
Police say Erik Soriano, 24, of south suburban Lansing; David Sanchez, 19, of the 4700 block of South Cicero Avenue, and Luis Recarte, 27, also of the 4700 block of South Cicero, attacked the 40-year-old victim around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.
The men are accused of attacking the victim near the intersection of Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue after leaving a bar.
The men began fighting with the homeless man and beat him with some sort of object, possibly a sign, a metal cable, or both.
"They beat this homeless guy pretty good," said a Central District Police captain.
All three men were charged with aggravated battery.
The victim listed his address as the Pacific Gardens Mission at 646 S. State St. The people who run the Pacific Garden Mission have seen too many of these cases.
"You want to heighten awareness to situations like this because these are members of society that feel at times that they are not empowered," said Pacific Garden Mission's Reverend Philip Kwiatokoski.
Meanwhile, homeless advocates say this kind of crime is on the rise.
"I think there's something in our culture that is dehumanizing people, making them less than people," said Ed Shurna of the Chicago Coalition for the Homless.
Investigators say it appears the men had been drinking in a bar, left and were walking down the street when the homeless man bumped into one of them. That's when the beating allegedly started.
Police say Hayden was kicked and was beaten with a chain and metal sign.
An incident in Florida last year, in which two teenagers beat a homeless man with baseball bats, is another example of what national homeless experts say is representative of the growing number of attacks on the homeless.
"People are afraid of people that are homeless because they're afraid that something's going to be done to them," Shurna added. "The truth is the opposite. The people that are on the street are the ones that are victimized 95 percent of the time."
The victim was hospitalized in critical condition early Monday morning. He was later stabilized and is expected to survive.
The three men charged are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on July 16 in North Felony Court, in the rear of the Belmont Area police station. Bond court information was not immediately available.
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