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Surveillance photo of the area around the South Shore station where a 68-year-old woman was raped shows the suspect in the case riding his bicycle up to the station. (Photo from Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police) |
South Shore Line police are asking for the public’s help in finding a man who raped a 68-year-old woman as she waited out a rainstorm in a Gary train station over the weekend.
The woman was attacked as she sat in the passenger shelter at the Miller South Shore station in Gary at about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, according to Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police.
The attack was caught by parking lot security cameras, and police are looking at other security video from nearby businesses, said NICTD Police Chief Robert Byrd.
The woman was waiting for a rainshower to pass when a man in his 20s rode up the platform on a bike, then got off the bike and sat down near her, Byrd said. The last train headed to Chicago had arrived more than an hour before the attack, and no eastbound trains were due until after 12:24 a.m., Byrd said.
The man tried to engage the woman in conversation, then pulled out a black handgun and ordered her to get down on the ground and disrobe, Byrd said.
After the attack, the man got back on his dark-colored BMX-style bike and rode east on Highway 12 toward Lake Street, Byrd said.
The train platform has no attendant, but the shelter is enclosed with glass windows above a waist-high wall, allowing passersby to easily see inside from the street. Less than a block away from the South Shore station is a gas station and busy McDonald’s and Lake Street, the commercial main street of Gary’s Miller Beach neighborhood. After the attack, the victim walked to the gas station for help, Byrd said.
The woman was taken to Methodist Hospital Northlake Campus in Gary, police said.
Police described the attacker as black, in his mid-20s, slender build, about 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9. He was wearing a white T-shirt with black lettering on the front and back and white shorts.
The station once was popular among Chicagoans headed to Gary’s lakefront beaches, and community groups landscape the grounds nearby. The neighborhood is the most affluent in the city, and reports of random, violent crime typically stir outcry from community groups.Eric E. Reaves, president of the neighborhood organization Miller Citizens Corp., said the assault was a hot topic among his fellow commuters waiting for the 9:30 a.m. train into Chicago with television news crews camped out in the parking lot.
“(The station) is in the heart of our community, so people are very concerned,” Reaves said. “Generally, it’s pretty safe. There’s the occasionally a car break-in, but to my knowledge, there’s never been an attack there, much less a rape.
“They want more police presence at the station.”
Anyone with information is asked to call transit police at 219-398-6000.
Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed