(CHICAGO) — A Chicago man was charged in connection to a series of sex crimes targeting women at least five times over the past three years, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Chakib Mansour Khodja, a 36-year-old Jefferson Park resident, was charged with 16 felonies and two misdemeanors on Monday, including aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed, home invasion with a dangerous weapon and public indecency with lewd exposure, police said in a press release.
The earliest incident allegedly occurred on May 7, 2022, and the latest on Feb. 2, police said.
“This man was a violent, serial predator who literally went out hunting for his victims,” Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said during a press conference on Monday.
In February, Khodja allegedly “approached the female victims from behind (twice on the sidewalk and once in an apartment building hallway)” and sexually assaulted them, police said. In one of these instances, he was armed with a sharp object, police said.
“These women survived something that was horrible and terrible and it’s something that they will continue to live with throughout the rest of their days,” CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said.
Investigators used video surveillance and DNA evidence to connect Khodja to the crimes, police said.
The suspect was arrested on April 4 at O’Hare Airport, when he was coming back from out of town, police said.
Khodja made his first court appearance on Monday, officials said. He was held pending trial.
He was appointed a public defender, but the lawyer was not named in court records.
“Today, the city is safer. Today, every single woman in the city, every single man who has a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister should all be breathing a sigh of relief,” O’Neill said.
Snelling said officials are still determining if there are any additional victims of Khodja’s attacks.
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