July 16--Felicia Wings' 15-year-old daughter stopped to tie her shoes, but her 13-year-old brother kept walking, not realizing she was in danger Monday morning in the Avondale neighborhood as they made their way to a school program.
Hearing a sudden crunch of gravel and then his sister screaming, he sprang into protector mode.
"It caused him to look back, and he noticed she wasn't there anymore. Then he saw a man putting her in a van and he (brother) grabbed her ankles," said Wings, 38.
"He was yelling, 'somebody help' as loud as he could," she said of her son, who watched his sister being dragged to the parked white van with its rear doors open.
As the man grasped the girl's ankles, the would-be abductor let go and she fell. But the man grabbed her again, Wings said.
"The second time he tried to throw her into the van," Wings said. "He grabbed the book bag she had on her back, and he pulled on it, but she finally slid out of his grip," Wings said. He fled east in the van, making off with the book bag, which contained her phone, and the siblings continued to school because they were "too scared to come home" Wings said.
It happened about 7:30 a.m. Monday as the siblings were walking in the 3000 block of North Francisco on their way to a CTA bus that would take them to a summer learning program.
Wings, who was at her nearby home when the man attacked, got a call from the school and became frantic. Police were called, and detectives are working on generating a sketch based on what her children remember about the attacker.
Wing's first reaction was of despair.
"My heart dropped,'' Wings said, adding that later she felt anger and then pride.
"He's heroic, and in his eyes he's not ... he's just happy to save his sister,'' Wings said of her son. "They just cried and cried, both of them. They've been crying every day.''
Police issued a community alert late Tuesday afternoon about the incident.
The man is described as a white Hispanic, ages 25 to 30. He is about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and weighs 190 to 210 pounds. He is clean-shaven with dark curly hair, police said.
The man was last seen wearing a black-and-white Adidas jacket and black construction boots. The vehicle is described as a white work van with no side windows and a very large dent on the front passenger side.
Anyone with information on the attack should call 911 or detectives at 312-744-8261.
