Warning: Details of the attack, as alleged by the prosecutor, are graphic...
A Cook County judge on Wednesday ordered a Chicago man held without bail after a prosecutor laid out the details of how she said the defendant attacked a college student in her dormitory shower earlier this week.
Tavares Humphries, 28, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, battery of a police officer and residential burglary, campus spokesman Bill Burton told NBC Chicago on Tuesday after charges were filed.
In court, Assistant States Attorney Pierina Infelise said the victim was taking a shower in Commons South residence hall, at 700 S. Halsted St., on Monday morning when she heard a man's voice in the bathroom. The woman looked out the shower curtain and saw Humphries standing there, naked, asking for soap. She yelled at him to leave but instead he kept asking for soap and then began taking a shower in a stall across from her.
Humphries, of the 3300 block of West Lexington Street, then joined the victim in her shower stall, lunging at her and wrapping his arms around her. She struggled and yelled for help but Humphries choked her and ultimately rendered her unconscious, Pierina said.
When the victim woke up, she was in a different shower stall and Humphries was raping her, Pierina told the judge.
The victim continued to scream, the prosecutor said, and Humphries told her to shut up and slapped her in the face with an open hand. He then again choked her to the point of unconsciousness.
It was at that point that a witness reportedly heard the victim's screams for help and entered the bathroom. Another witness, David Guerrero, told NBC Chicago on Tuesday that he heard the commotion and didn't hesitate in helping.
"I ran down the hallway and to the girl's bathroom and asked if everything is OK," Guerrero said. "I heard screams so I entered. When I entered I saw the perpetrator in the corner and I saw the victim clearly scared."
As police were trying to place Humphries into custody, Pierina said Humphries grabbed and squeezed an officer's groin, causing "extreme pain."
The victim, whose name was not publicly released because she's a victim of an alleged sexual crime, was taken to the university hospital and treated for multiple abrasions to her face, shoulders and back, as well as swelling to her knee and a cut to her genitals.
"Based on the serious nature of the charges, it's evident that he's a danger to himself and to society," Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesel said before ordering Humphries held.
The five-story residence hall, at 700 S. Halsted St., houses about 190 undergraduate students, according to UIC’s web site.
