A 23-year-old woman was struck in the face with a gun Monday afternoon in an alley on the 1800 block of North Harding Avenue, just steps from the western end of the 606 trail in Logan Square, according to Chicago police. The attack happened around 3:19 p.m. after the woman argued with an unknown man, police said, and the suspect fled eastbound with others before climbing into a white pickup truck that appeared to be waiting for him.
The woman declined emergency medical services at the scene, and police said they had no other information to release about the incident, as reported by ABC7 Chicago. The alley sits directly along the western edge of the Bloomingdale Trail Park, the 2.74-mile elevated greenway that runs from Ashland Avenue to Lawndale Avenue and puts the 1800 block of North Harding Avenue right up against the path's terminus.
A Second Violent Attack Near the Trail's Western End
Monday's assault comes just two months after another attack targeting a runner at the same stretch of trail. In June, 56-year-old Ricardo Colon was arrested near the 1700 block of North Lawndale Avenue after allegedly putting a 32-year-old female jogger in a chokehold and attempting to sexually assault her before neighbors tackled him. Colon was held without bail after prosecutors said he admitted to grabbing women along the path, a case Hoodline covered in 606 Trail Horror As Neighbors Tackle Suspect.
The block also carries a darker recent history. One street north, on the 1700 block of North Harding Avenue, Chicago police in May released updated surveillance images seeking help identifying a suspect in an unsolved August 2024 homicide, an early-morning shooting that left a 32-year-old man dead and two others wounded, as Hoodline reported at the time.
Rising Crime Numbers in the Surrounding Police District
The attack falls within the Chicago Police Department's 14th District, known as the Shakespeare District, where total reported crime jumped 36% between 2022 and 2023, according to The Red Line Project. That period saw a 57% increase in robberies and an 86% increase in motor vehicle thefts, and total crime in the district rose 52% in 2023 compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, per the outlet's analysis.
If police identify and charge a suspect, an attack involving a gun on public property such as an alley or park could be charged as aggravated battery under Illinois law, a Class 3 felony carrying two to five years in prison, since using a deadly weapon or committing battery on public land elevates the offense beyond a misdemeanor.
A Greenway Built on Falling Crime, Now Facing New Fears
The trail opened in June 2015 after a $95 million conversion of a decommissioned 1873 rail line into an elevated park serving roughly 80,000 residents within a ten-minute walk, according to the City of Chicago. It now links four Northwest Side neighborhoods, Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park, across 39 rehabilitated railroad bridges and 13 access points, per the American Society of Landscape Architects.
A study published in the journal Environment and Behavior, examining Chicago crime data from 2011 to 2015, found that crime rates initially fell faster in neighborhoods surrounding the trail than in comparable neighborhoods without greenways, according to a report from DNAinfo. Home values along the trail's western section near Logan Square and Humboldt Park have since surged 48.2%, well above the 13.8% increase on the eastern end, per a DePaul University study cited by Lowe Group Chicago, underscoring how sharply the area has gentrified even as safety concerns persist near the trail's ground-level access ramps.
The Bloomingdale Trail Park is officially open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with Chicago Police Department foot and bicycle patrols equipped with body cameras providing security oversight, and officers authorized to ticket trespassers after hours. It remains unclear whether police plan to boost patrols specifically around the trail's western access points following Monday's attack, or whether the white pickup truck seen fleeing matches vehicles described in other recent armed incidents in the district.
