A 36-year-old man with a history of unprovoked attacks on women in Chicago’s downtown neighborhoods is facing hate crime and battery charges after prosecutors said he attacked three women within blocks of each other on a single evening last week.
Edwin Barron, the latest in a growing list of accused “Loop punchers,” was ordered detained as a safety threat by Judge Antara Rivera following his arrest in connection with the March 5 attacks in the Loop.
According to prosecutors, at approximately 7:50 p.m., two Hispanic women, ages 21 and 24, were standing near the Washington-Wabash L station in the first block of East Madison Street when Barron approached and began yelling at them. He allegedly grabbed one of the women by the neck so aggressively that she heard her neck crack and felt pain…