Immigrant chased, stabbed by fellow asylum-seeker brandishing 3-inch knife during fight at South Side police station, prosecutors say

An argument between two men who had been receiving housing services with other migrants at a South Side police station resulted in one of the men stabbing the other earlier this week, according to Cook County prosecutors.

The incident occurred shortly after 7 p.m. Monday in the the Grand Crossing District Station, 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave., prosecutors said.

Both men were using a bathroom at the station when the argument began, leading 23-year-old Jorge Goyo to put his hand over the neck of the 48-year-old while he told the older man that “he had killed people in the past,” prosecutors said in court Wednesday.

Goyo pulled out a 3-inch knife and chased the older man to the front of the police station and at some point stabbed him in the thigh, prosecutors said. When officers removed Goyo from the station they allegedly saw him holding a bloody knife and placed him in custody.

He was subsequently charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

The older man was taken to a hospital for treatment and was initially listed in serious condition, authorities said. Prosecutors said Wednesday that his condition had been stabilized.

Prosecutors said Goyo was “a migrant” but his housing situation wasn’t clear.

He was not on a list of people living at the station but been at the station because he said his passport and ID had been stolen, prosecutors said.

A public defender for Goyo said her client had been living at the station while seeking refugee status after leaving his home country of Venezuela, where he has a young child. A police report also listed the station’s address as Goyo’s residence.

Citing Goyo’s limited connection to the community and the violent nature of the attack, Judge Susana Ortiz said Goyo would need to post $1,000 bond and go on electronic monitoring to be released from custody while the case continues.

Because his attorney said he had no money for bond, Ortiz said her order would be reviewed at his next court appearance on Aug. 7. The judge also approved an order to find Goyo alternative housing.

City officials have struggled to shelter thousands of new arrivals since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending busloads of immigrants to Chicago last spring, part of a broader effort to push back on federal immigration policies. As a result, police stations have been turned into makeshift shelters where immigrants have been provided with expired meal rations and where infections and infestations have been reported.

Hundreds of migrants were moved from temporary shelters to lakefront neighborhoods on the North Side in recent days. That includes more than 100 people who were moved on Tuesday from the Central District police station in the South Loop to the Broadway Armory Fieldhouse in Edgewater. 

Before that group was moved, nearly 1,000 immigrants were staying at police districts throughout the city. Another 5,500 were housed in city shelters. 

Meanwhile, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating claims of sexual misconduct involving officers from the Ogden and Town Hall districts, including at least one allegation involving a minor. 

Last month, COPA’s chief administrator announced that investigators hadn’t identified any victims of the alleged abuse after activists criticized the agency’s ability to investigate such claims.