Man Loses Nose In Rogers Park Attack

A masked man wearing a red baseball cap used a broken beer bottle to smash the head and nose of a man he robbed early Wednesday in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

At 12:04 a.m., a 43-year-old man was entering the gangway of his residence at 2018 W. Greenleaf Ave. when the attacker “jumped at him from behind a bush,” according to Rogers Park District police Capt. Thomas Libert.

The attacker grabbed the victim -- who tried to fight him off -- causing him to fall to the ground. The suspect said, “Give me your sh--” and began striking the victim with a broken beer bottle and kick him repeatedly, according to the captain.

The beer bottle caused the man to lose 2 1/2 centimeters from his nose. He also suffered lacerations to the scalp, shoulder and left knee.

The suspect, described as a black man wearing a black ski mask and a red baseball cap, fled on foot with the man’s backpack containing a cell phone, checkbook and credit cards, Libert said.

The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in an unidentified condition with non-life-threatening injuries. The piece of the man’s nose was recovered in the bushes and given to paramedics, the captain said.

The suspect was not in custody early Thursday, and Libert said the attack was not linked to any other similar ones.

Belmont Area detectives are investigating.