Chicago Prosecutor Stabbed for Defending Gay Couple in Park

A prosecutor from Chicago is currently hospitalized after he was attacked by two teenagers when he tried to stop an assault on two men who may have been gay, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The victim's name has not been released but Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office, said the 32-year-old public employee was walking by himself around 7 p.m. on Thursday and witnessed two individuals harass two men who are apparently gay. After seeing the teens bothering the men, he yelled and told them to stop.

"They turned on him and ran at him," Daly added.

Officials say that the teens attacked him and the prosecutor was left with a cut near his left eye and on his side under his right arm but the wounds were "non-life-threatening injuries." The incident occurred in Lincoln Park on the North Side of the Windy City.

Daly notes that the victim "did lose a lot of blood" and "he is in pain but thankfully is going to be OK." Daly also said that the victim has been an assistant state's attorney since 2008 and works in the juvenile justice bureau.

A friend of the victim, 27-year-old Teddy Wozny, told the Chicago Tribune that he was supposed to meet the victim on Thursday evening.

"I had just texted [the victim] a couple minutes before and he responded, so I had no idea anything was going on," Wozny said. "All of a sudden I saw him limping out from under the tree line in the park. When I saw his face, I was like 'Holy cow.' "

Wozny said the victim was bleeding from under his eye and had stab wounds on his body. He took him to a hospital but said he was released late Friday and is recovering at home.

"He said they were chasing them, full-on running, and the two guys were screaming for help," Wozny said. Wozny also said that the victim told him he yelled, "Knock the fuck off!" at the attackers.

The victim is "not a small guy," he added. "He's 6 feet, 230 pounds, so he grabbed the first kid and got him in a choke hold, and was trying to keep that guy between him and the second guy," Wozny said. "Then he slipped on the grass and went down, and they got the best of him."

Wozny said his friend told him he was hit with a beer bottle and that he tried to get out of the attack by saying, "OK, OK ... you made your point. It's done." But one of the teens said, "No this isn't done," and allegedly stabbed the prosecutor.

The Sun Times points out that local detectives are conducting an "ongoing investigation" and have yet to information about the attackers.

According to police, the teens are about 16 or 17 and were described as Hispanic between 5 feet 7 inches and 6 feet tall and weighing about 150 to 190 pounds. One of the attackers had long black hair and wore a black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans, while the other had on a turquoise baseball cap and a zip-up hoodie.

The state attorney's chief of staff, Dan Kirk, praised the man's actions as those of a good Samaritan. "Our colleagues actions coming to the aid of other people that he didn't know is indicative of the character and caliber that we seek in the many men and women that work in our office," Kirk told the Windy City Times. "This was a heroic act on the part of our assistant state's attorney."