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Frantic Search On For Woman Who Stabbed 3 People For No Apparent Reason In North Lakefront Neighborhoods

CHICAGO (CBS) -- An urgent search was under way on Thursday for a woman who police said stabbed three people at random in north lakefront Chicago neighborhoods over the last two weeks.

CBS 2's Marissa Parra spoke with the mother of one of the victims Thursday. That mother, Sharon Bunch, hopes her story will prevent someone else's son or daughter from getting hurt.

Days after Bunch's own encounter, shop owners said the same woman was outside and threatened to shoot someone.

Bunch showed Parra where her adult son became the woman's first victim, in Margate Park in the 4500 block of North Marine Drive in Uptown at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, June 5.

"We were going this way. We was going to go sit down at the bench, and you know, she was coming this way and just pulled out a knife and just stabbed my son for no apparent reason," Bunch said.

Bunch added, "My son cried right after, 'Mommy, she stabbed me, she stabbed me!'"

Bunch and her son – 27-year-old Luis Merced – ran from the park and back into the Salvation Army, a few blocks north at 4800 N. Marine Dr.

"I just took him and started going that way, and then I had to run into the shelter, you know, to get some some paper towels or whatever I could, you know, to try to stop the bleeding," Bunch said. "It just happened so fast."

Bunch and her son had just checked into the Salvation Army for help with their living situation hours before. They had gone for out a walk when they ran into the woman who attacked Merced in Margate Park. They said she ran off in an unknown direction immediately afterward.

Parra is told when Bunch and Merced got back to the Salvation Army, one of the staff members there ran out to help Merced with his wounds and called 911. The staff member also helped guide the ambulances who were trying to find the building.

Police say 10 hours later and just two miles north, another person was stabbed at Sheridan Road and Thorndale Avenue in Edgewater.

On Wednesday, June 9, police said the woman struck in Uptown – this time outside of shops on Broadway just north of Lawrence Avenue. A shop owner told CBS 2 police called to warn them, saying that the same woman had threatened to shoot someone outside.

And just two days after that, at 4:25 p.m. Friday, June 11, police said the woman stabbed someone inside the bustling Mariano's grocery store at 3030 N. Broadway in East Lakeview.

It was there where the woman was captured in surveillance images with a pink top, seemingly running outside with a backpack.

North Lakefront Serial Stabbing Suspect
(Credit: Chicago Police)

"It's sad, you know, that she just keeps doing it, you know, that she just keeps getting away with it," Bunch said.

Bunch said her son is still recovering.

"He had to get a lot of staples because they had to do emergency surgery on him to make sure that he didn't have no organ damage or nothing," she said.

But Bunch hopes the woman is found before this turns into a story with a different ending.

"I hope she's found, you know, before she seriously hurts somebody again – or you know, before she kills somebody," she said. "They need to get her off the street. She's too dangerous."

Police have been canvassing the scenes looking for surveillance video. Shop owners in the area said they have been warned to keep an eye out, and police are asking the public to do the same.

Anyone with information should call Area Three detectives at (312) 744-8261.

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