While coming home from a morning college class, a 19-year-old girl became trapped in the back of a city train by a pair of punks, who were waiting for most of the other passengers to exit. Soon, she learned how they would use her earbuds against her, which was all made worse by what happened after they had their way with her.
Jessica Hughes, a DePaul University Student, left campus and headed back home alone on the CTA Blue Line train as she listened to her music. After many of the passengers had gotten off at their various stops along the way, Jessica noticed a man move closer to her, taking up the seat in front of her. Instantly, she got a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
When the guy got his chance, he turned around and attacked, pouncing on the helpless teen. Jessica said that he immediately went for her iPhone, which was in her pocket and connected to the earbuds she had in her ears. As the struggle began, a woman who was with the attacker jumped in and joined the assault on Jessica.
“He jumps up from his chair, and goes on top of me, and asks me for my phone, but my phone was in my pocket, and I had my headphones on, so he was yanking at my headphones, and then he pushed me to the floor, and then started beating on my head,” Jessica explained to WBBM, recalling how the attacker used her earbuds to overpower her.
However, the attack was just getting started, and what witnesses did while it was happening has left her in fear for her life. As the brawl escalated and Jessica desperately tried to defend herself, the man bit down hard on her left hand, as his female accomplice went for the teen’s face. The woman ultimately broke Jessica’s nose while witnesses just watched and did nothing.
Jessica said that there were two men standing nearby, who she asked to help her, but they refused to do anything. “They just watched,” she told WBBM. “I feel like people just don’t want to get involved.” Since nobody stepped in to defend this girl, her attackers got away, with no way to track them down other than grainy surveillance footage and the victim’s description.
“I’m just hoping everything they need is on that video,” Jessica said. “And they’re able to get those people that did this to me.” She described the attacker as an African American man in his mid-20’s. He was wearing a blue Ralph Lauren polo hat, a grey hoodie, and baggy pants that were sagging below his waist. She said the woman, also an African American in her mid-20’s, was extremely thin with long black hair.
Jessica’s father, Richard Amador, said she could have been killed — yet, no one stepped in to save her. “It’s just shameful,” he said. “Definitely, I would jump in and help, no matter what the consequences, because it’s another human being. I just pray that they find these animals.”
As Jessica recovered from what happened on the train, she was left with a sour reality of the world we live in today. When two grown men can watch a woman getting ambushed and have no instinctual reaction to protect someone, society has devolved into a frightening place. Ideally, real men would step up and help another human being, especially a young woman who’s barely more than a child, because doing nothing is acceptance of what’s happening.