Community advocates demanded the city install cameras at its beach facilities and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the man’s arrest.
Violet Miller/Sun-Times
Community activists gathered at Rainbow Beach on Sunday morning to distribute fliers with sketches of a man who allegedly assaulted a 4-year-old child at the beach’s washrooms Tuesday.
“I want to send a message out to the parents of Chicago, never allow your child to go to a public bathroom in the city of Chicago,” said Tio Hardiman, executive director of Violence Interrupters. “It’s something out of a horror movie … You never know what’s lurking inside these bathrooms.”
Hardiman was joined by Andre Smith, CEO of Chicago Against Violence. The two directed their words at Mayor Brandon Johnson and the city, demanding cameras be installed at the beach’s bathroom facilities “just as they are up north” in the event something like this were to happen again.
Violet Miller/Sun-Times
“Chicago is camera city. How can we not have cameras at this beach to protect our most precious, our pride and joy, who are supposed to be out here enjoying themselves?” Smith said.
“If there were cameras here, we’d at least have a photograph or some video of the alleged individual coming out of the bathroom here,” Hardiman added.
Smith said he believed the police sketch of the man alleged to have committed the assault Tuesday looked “identical” to the sketch of a man alleged to have sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl who was walking home from school in Washington Park last November.
Along with a series of robocalls, Smith and Hardiman said they expected to have volunteers handing out and hanging up posters of the sketch around the beach to raise awareness.
“A lot of people don’t know what happened,” Smith said.
Violet Miller/Sun-Times
The groups offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the alleged offender, though they urged other groups to join in and add funds to the reward.
Provided
“Somebody probably saw this guy, somebody knows this guy, he’s a family member of someone in Chicago,” Hardiman said. “Someone needs to step up and do the right thing.”
The group also pushed for opening mental health facilities and renovations to the bathrooms, which Smith described as “worse than jail institution washrooms.”
The Chicago Park District couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.