Three Recent Stabbings Downtown Prompt Community Alert; Police Searching For Suspect

CHICAGO (CBS)-- Police are searching for the man suspected in three recent stabbings near The Loop.

In all three incidents, police said the victims were attacked by a man in his 30s who is possibly homeless and living in the area.

A Maryland University doctoral candidate was was stabbed in the back and killed in broad daylight on June 19 on South Wacker Drive near Van Buren Street downtown.

At 4 p.m., the 31-year-old woman was on the sidewalk, next to a power station that overlooks the Eisenhower Expressway – which starts right around that point.

A man came up, took out a knife, and stabbed the woman from the back. A dispatcher reported over police radio that the woman was found bleeding from her neck.

The woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The man who did it ran away.

Two other incidents were reported on June 10 in the 500 block of South Franklin around 9:30 p.m. and on June 13 in the first block of East Congress Parkway at 7:15 a.m.

Police said the the man may have "dread style hair" and appears to be approaching victims from behind.

Police Supt. David Brown said a homeless encampment is located close to the crime scene where the student was killed, and he said, "We suspect this likely is a homeless person that secreted himself in the bushes and came out and committed this heinous crime."

Brown said the victim likely did not see the attacker until he came out of the bushes where he was hiding.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.