Indiana Man Charged In Washington Heights Sexual Assaults
(STMW) -- An Indiana man raped a 14-year-old girl on the South Side - his third sexual assault in just three hours- and threatened to kill the teenager if she didn't stop praying during the attack, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday.
Terrell Rush assaulted the girl just several hours he raped a mother and daughter and was found lurking in an 11-year-old girl's bedroom closet on Oct. 9.
The older girl was walking to her bus stop in the 10000 block of South Peoria Street when Rush, 26, allegedly came up from behind and put a knife to her throat.
The girl cried and begged him not to rape her but when he did and she started praying, Rush demanded she stop and threatened to kill her, an assistant state's attorney said in court.
Meanwhile, the 11-year-old's father contacted police.
He told officers he was at home in the 10100 block of South Green Street when he heard a dog barking and his daughter scream.
When he ran into the girl's room, he saw a man peeking out of her closet, police said.
Police believe that man was Rush, a purported Gangster Disciple.
Rush eventually jumped out of the same window he had apparently crawled through and ran down the block, prosecutors said.
Rush's crime spree began that morning at 3 a.m. when he attacked two women at their home in the 10300 block of South Emerald Avenue, police said.
Prosecutors said Rush used a garbage can to prop himself into a kitchen window of a home, then walked in a 43-year-old woman's bedroom where he threatened her with a knife he took from the kitchen.
He allegedly threatened to kill her if she screamed, but she still screamed and her 22-year-old daughter rushed in.
Rush then put a blanket over the mother's head and raped her daughter, then attacked her again, prosecutors said.
Rush also stole money and property from the home before fleeing, according to authorities.
The two women ran while partially clothed to a neighbor's home to get help.
The mother and daughter identified Rush in a line-up and knives recovered at the scenes of the crimes had Rush's DNA on them, prosecutors said.
Rush was arrested in Lafayette, Ind., Tuesday and extradited to Chicago Friday night, police said.
He was charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon and one count of criminal trespass to a residence.
Rush, of the 1800 block of Perrine Street in Lafayette, Ind., has one previous felony arrest for possession of a controlled substance, which he was sentenced to two years probation, deemed unsatisfactory, his public defender said.
Judge Israel Desierto on Saturday denied bond for the warrant for the sexual assaults in the first attack, and also denied bond for criminal trespass and the teen's rape.
All three victims were taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital.
The 11-year-old girl was not injured.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
