Immigrant stabbed by fellow asylum-seeker during fight at South Side police station

An immigrant allegedly stabbed and seriously wounded another new arrival during a fight this week at a South Side police station, the Sun-Times has learned.

The attack happened inside the Grand Crossing District Station, 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave., according to law enforcement sources.

A Chicago police spokesperson said officers initially noticed a “disturbance” about 7:15 p.m. Monday and learned that a 23-year-old man had stabbed a 48-year-old man in the thigh during an altercation.

The older man was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition, the spokesperson said. Charges were pending against the other man.

The spokesperson wouldn’t confirm that the men were immigrants and didn’t specify that the stabbing occurred in a police facility. 

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.