A 36-year-old man from the Chicago area has been charged with multiple counts of hate crime, robbery, and battery after allegedly attacking a group of passengers on a train and stealing their belongings.
Leondess Williams is accused of approaching a group of two young men and one woman on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Orange Line at the Archer station around midnight on Saturday. He reportedly yelled anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at the group, telling them, “Y’all gay asses deserve to get robbed.”
According to police, Williams then stabbed an 18-year-old male in the head and demanded his wallet. When the victim only handed over his phone, Williams punched his friend, a 19-year-old male, and stole his money and phone. The woman in the group was not targeted.
Police tracked Williams down by following the GPS location on one of the stolen phones and found him a short distance from the train station. They recovered the stolen items and a knife. The victims identified Williams as their attacker and declined medical attention.
Williams has been charged with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of hate crime, and several other charges related to the attack. This is not his first run-in with the law, as he was already facing a pending misdemeanor assault charge stemming from a March incident in which he allegedly threatened a woman with a knife.
After failing to show up for his court appearance in June, Williams was mailed a notice by the court instead of being issued an arrest warrant. He is currently being held pending trial.
