View Chicagoland and Worldwide Crime Notebook Map near scene of attack of couple by two homeless persons.
Jennifer Hall, attacked on the sidewalk near Jewel on August 25, 2008, claims in a lawsuit that “homeless persons and others were known to loiter outside” and that Jewel was negligent when it, among other things, “improperly permitted homeless persons and others to loiter on said premises when they knew or should have known that such persons had a violent propensity,” and “that such persons posed a risk to persons lawfully on said premises.”
A homeless couple, Joyce Burgess and Derrick King, attacked Jennifer Hall and her boyfriend Joseph Hoffman as they left a restaurant. The homeless couple attacked after receiving a “no” for a request for cigarettes from Hall and Hoffman, who were out celebrating Hall’s birthday. Joyce Burgess, 38, sitting on a wall on the west side of Wabash near Roosevelt, jumped off the wall and attacked Jennifer Hall who had just left the Wabash Tap in the South Loop. She was celebrating her 36th birthday with boyfriend Joseph Hoffman. Burgess attacked Hall from behind after the couple walked about two or three steps past the initial verbal encounter between the four people. Hoffman immediately came in to defend his girlfriend by pushing Burgess off of his girlfriend. The homeless male, Derrick King, 46, then jumped off the wall and attacked Joe Hoffman. The two males tangled in a fight, but King broke free with Hoffman’s Blackberry and started kicking 5′ 4″ and 110-pound Jennifer Hall in the head while she was on the ground. Jennifer Hall was seriously injured in the attack.
View Larger Map of crime scene where couple attacked by homeless couple in the Chicago South Loop