One rape, two attacks, one arrest in Prospect Heights

Prospect Heights Police are investigating a rape and two other attacks on women that occurred over the past month in the area of Milwaukee Avenue and Palatine Road.

A woman who left the a bar in the 600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue at 2 a.m. on Aug. 6 was walking home when she was sexually assaulted by two men, police said.

The victim told police that the men followed her down Apple Drive, grabbed her from behind, dragged her toward some trees and raped her near the grassy area by 401 Piper Lane, police said.

After the men left, the victim returned home and called police, Prospect Heights Police Cmdr. Al Steffen said.

Police found pieces of the victim's clothing that had been ripped off and collected DNA evidence from the scene.

Steffan said the victim was unable to describe the men for a police sketch, but "she thinks she can identify them," he said.

Police also are investigating two attempted assaults in the same area earlier this month.

At about 4 a.m. Sept. 5, a woman riding her bicycle to work northbound on Milwaukee Avenue was attacked by a man who tried to pull her into a parked car, police said.

The man stepped out of an older model gray pickup truck, asked the woman if she needed a ride, then grabbed her by her left arm and tried to force her into the passenger side of the truck, Steffen said.

The woman fought off the offender and rode north on Milwaukee Avenue to a hotel on the border between Wheeling and Prospect Heights from where she called police.

Steffen said the victim described the offender as a 6-foot-tall, 220 pound white male in his thirties with short hair and sideburns.

Police have arrested a person in connection with the third attack, which occurred at 8 p.m. Sept. 8 at 648 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Antonio Ruiz, 26, of the 600 block of Piper Lane, is charged with battery after trying to grab a woman in the parking lot of a store in the 600 block of North Milwaukee, police said.

Ruiz, who was heavily intoxicated, approached the woman as she was leaving the store, followed her to her car, grabbed her by the arm, and said "he wanted to commit a sex act with her," Steffan said. "She broke away and ran into the grocery store and called 911 and called her husband."

The woman's husband arrived at the scene before police did and tried to grab Ruiz and hold him until police arrived. Ruiz threw a beer bottle at the husband before police took him into custody, Steffen said.

Police are investigating whether Ruiz had any connection with last month's rape, he said.