Man Charged With Attacking Woman In UIC Dorm Shower
Updated 04/01/14 - 4:18 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a dormitory shower on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus on Monday.
Police said 28-year-old Tavares Humphries has been charged with one count each of attempted murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, attempted burglary, and battery of a police officer.
Humphries allegedly attacked a woman at about 10 a.m. Monday, in the bathroom on the fifth floor of the Commons South Residence Hall, at 700 S. Halsted St. UIC police said he sexually assaulted the woman, and choked her into unconsciousness.
UIC Student Helped Stop Attack
Other dorm residents heard the victim's cries for help, and called police. They also detained Humphries until police arrived.
19-year-old David Guerrero of Cicero was one of those students and had just left his dorm room.
"I was walking to the men's bathroom and I heard one of my floormates walking down the hall screaming, 'Somebody's getting sexually assaulted! I need help!'"
So Guerrero says he followed her over to the women's bathroom, opened the door, asked if everything was OK and heard a scream.
He went in, aw the perpetrator in a corner and saw that a woman was "frightened and distraught." Guerrero told her to run.
"The perpetrator was clearly on a drug. He was incoherent, speaking nonsense. So I waited until he kind of gathered himself and I escorted him out of the bathroom and I sat him down.
"And I told him just to wait here until security arrived.
"Basically all my floormates who were opening their doors to see what the ruckus was - I was telling them to call the police, call security. And everybody contributed. They all did their part by calling the police. 'Cause the police were there immediately."
Guerrero says his father is a Cicero police officer.
UIC student Haley Mcintosh lives down the hall.
"I woke up because I heard screaming," said Mcintosh. "They were screaming like bloody murder and it was really scary."
"It was a combination of the police's prompt response and the students doing their best to impede the escape of the suspect," UIC spokesman Bill Burton.
"My friend who was there and told him to 'stop walking away, you're staying here' and I heard they held them down," said Mcintosh.
Police do not know how Humphries, who is not affiliated with UIC, got into the dorm, but campus police have increased patrols.
"It's kind of scary," UIC student Ghazal Baniasad said. "Yesterday, I was walking back from the library. I was studying late at night, so it was scary to walk back. I was always checking behind my back."
The university also has tightened security in all its dorms, with 24-hour check-ins at the door.
Humphries has a lengthy criminal record, with at least 17 arrests, and seven convictions, including one for a sex offender registry violation.
