Oct. 19--A Gresham neighborhood man was ordered held in lieu of $950,000 bail Sunday after being charged with cutting a woman's face with a knife and robbing her of her cellphone on a downtown CTA rail platform last week, police said.
Casser Williams, 48, was charged in the 4:10 a.m. Thursday attack on the Clark and Lake Blue Line platform.
Williams, of the 9000 block of South Normal Avenue, appeared in Cook County Bond Court on Sunday on charges of robbery and felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Williams wore a red Chicago Blackhawks shirt underneath a long leather jacket in court.
Assistant Cook County state's attorney Joseph DiBella said Williams approached the victim, claiming she stole his cellphone. He reported her to CTA authorities, who told him to file a police report with the Chicago Police Department.
Williams lunged at the victim with a knife, cutting the woman on the left side of the face, then taking her cellphone, police said in a news release.
Police say they recovered a knife and the woman's cellphone from the Williams.
The victim was cut from her ear to her mouth, DiBella said. The victim required 25 stitches for the wound.
While being questioned by police, Williams told investigators "Yeah I cut that (expletive). I should've cut that (expletive) heart out."
Williams previously served two years in prison for wielding a box cutter at a restaurant, where he cut a man's hand, tearing a tendon, DiBella said.
Williams also admitted his involvement in that case, saying the victim deserved to have his head cut off, DiBella said.
The 23-year-old victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition, and she was treated for a gash to the face, according to police.
Steven Lucas, a bartender, said he was on the CTA platform just after 4 a.m. when he witnessed the attack. "He kept threatening me that he was going to stab me," Lucas said.
Lucas, 25, said he decided to follow the man from the Clark and Lake stop, grabbing a "Wet Floor" sign for protection.
"There was another guy telling me to leave it alone, to not go at him," Lucas said. "But as a human seeing a woman bleeding, I figured it would have been the right thing.
"I called the cops as I followed him," he told WGN-TV. "And came at him with the sign. I didn't even hit him at all. As soon as the cops pulled up, they were able to detain him."
