Police: Victim in Arlington Heights chain saw attack suffered major cut
Updated at 4 p.m. June 20 to correct ages of victim and suspect
A 39-year-old suburban man remained hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a major cut in a chain saw attack a day before in Arlington Heights, police said.
The attacker, a 28-year-old man who knew the victim, remains in custody, Cmdr. Nathan Hayes said Tuesday, but authorities have not filed charges. Detectives have not been able to speak with the hospitalized man while he receives treatment, Hayes said.
The bizarre incident started about 1 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of an office complex at 559 W. Golf Road. The 28-year-old rammed his car into a car occupied by the victim and his girlfriend, police said.
Witnesses say the 28-year-old, wielding a chain saw, jumped out of the vehicle and attacked the 39-year-old man. Bloody clothes and the chain saw were on the ground at the crime scene.
The victim underwent surgery Monday afternoon at Northwest Community Hospital. Police did not release the status of his condition.
The day after the attack, workers were still talking about what happened in their normally quiet office complex on the south side of Golf Road.
Dana Altshuler was working in the back of Academy Engraving Co. when she heard a loud bang that turned out to be one car striking the other. She thought it might have been weightlifters at the neighboring Three60FIT gym.
“I wasn't sure what I heard,” she said.
A short time later, she came out to the front and saw a blue sedan smashed into a silver sedan, with engine smoke billowing. She noticed the chain saw on the pavement near a bush. About a dozen police cars arrived with flashing lights and sirens.
Altshuler saw the victim being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher, his arm wrapped up and most of his body covered with a blanket. She says she recognized him as an employee of a nearby car insurance business.
An employee at the front desk of the insurance business where the victim and his girlfriend worked referred comment to a company official Tuesday afternoon.
Hayes reiterated Tuesday that the attack was not random.
“It has to do with a domestic situation,” he said.
The police department is not releasing the identity of the men until charges are filed.