A man was seriously hurt in an attack on a busy street in Chicago. People who saw the attack told the police where the attacker was, but the police let the suspect go without making a report. The victim later died in the hospital, possibly because of the injuries from the attack. The police are now investigating why they didn’t document the attack or keep the suspect in custody.
The victim, Russ Long, was a caring and reliable man. He was attacked on June 29 on a street called Michigan Avenue. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The police were told that the suspect was caught about 15 minutes after the attack, but the suspect was not taken to the police station. The police also didn’t write a report about the attack until four days later.
People who know about the situation said that a police officer went to the hospital, but didn’t make a report because Long was unable to speak due to his injuries. Several people tried to report the incident to the police over the next few days, but were given different reasons why the police couldn’t take their reports.
Finally, on July 2, a friend of Long’s called 911 from the hospital and asked for an officer to come and take a report. It took four days after the attack for the police to start investigating and documenting what happened. Russ Long died on July 12.
The police realized something went wrong on the day of the attack and are looking into it. They know who the suspect is and have had similar cases where victims with head injuries were hurt. They’re waiting for the results from the medical examiner before deciding how to proceed.
In the past, there have been cases where victims with head injuries were hurt and later died. It sometimes took the police a while to properly classify the cases as murder instead of just assault.
