A Chicago pastor and his wife continue to recover after a vicious beating that happened on the city’s South Side left them both hospitalized.
CBSN Chicago reports that the incident happened on Saturday while Timothy and Renee Johnson were at his 95-year-old mother’s house helping her with chores. According to police, a man approached Timothy as he was working outside of his mother’s house off of Emerald Avenue near 105th Street, and asked him if he wanted to buy something.
When Timothy declined, the suspect attacked him. Renee ran to help her husband but the suspect ended up attacking her as well.
“He brutally attacked them,” Timothy’s sister, Rhonda Hutcherson, told the outlet.
Prosecutors said when police arrested the 28-year-old suspect, identified as Elijah Prince, he was covered in the victims’ blood. Chicago Sun-Times reports that when police detained Prince, he claimed the blood was not his own, but the “blood of peasants.”
During a hearing earlier this week, the court heard how Prince allegedly put Timothy in a chokehold while beating him with a shovel in an alley behind his mother’s home. The suspect then allegedly gouged the pastor’s eyes with his fingers, then bit his ears and head before spitting in his mouth.
Prosecutors said Prince also rammed a three-inch block into the pastor’s eye.
Prince then allegedly ripped out some of Renee’s hair, gouged her eyes with his finger, and bit off “large chunks” of her ear. While she was on the ground, Prince allegedly spit on her and began beating her.
The suspect fled when a neighbor came outside and started screaming. Police caught up with him a short time later with his mouth and face covered in blood.
Prince was ultimately arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery. A judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He remains behind bars on a $5 million bond.
Both victims have a long history of service to the community. Timothy is a minister at Salem Baptist Church; he also spent time pastoring on the streets and in parks. According to a GoFundMe page, he’s also been battling “Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma for the last 10 years.”
The story continues to develop. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: GoFundMe]
