Officer Attacked In Evanston Among Many Victims Of Serial Puncher: Police

CHICAGO — Criminal cases involving two men accused of repeatedly attacking women across Chicago in recent months are moving forward, according to police, who said one of the men also was charged with battering an officer in Evanston earlier this fall.

Derek Rucker, 37, of Blue Island, was arrested Oct. 9 in downtown Chicago less than an hour after hitting a 44-year-old woman in the face so hard she fell to the ground in the 500 block of North State Street, police said.

Between Sept. 21 and Oct. 9, Rucker attacked four women, ages 23-44, across the city’s North Side, as well as an on-duty police officer Sept. 30 in the 300 block of Ridge Avenue in Evanston, according to police. Rucker had been charged with six counts of various types of aggravated battery, police said at the time of his arrest.

Rucker, whose attacks included spitting on women on trains, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison, NBC Chicago reported. He pleaded guilty to: hitting a 62-year-old woman in the head about a year ago in downtown Chicago, striking a CTA employee in the head on Sept. 30 at the Loyola station and two counts of burglary, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The other repeat attacker, 32-year-old William Livingston of Chicago, was accused in February 2022 of striking and trying to steal from five women ages 25-49 within minutes of each other in the city’s downtown, according to police.

Livingston was arrested again on Wednesday by Chicago police and U.S. Marshals in the 2600 block of South California Boulevard and charged with two counts of aggravated battery for hitting two women, ages 29 and 40, on June 12 in the 2700 block of North Clark Street, police said.

The Sun-Times reported that both men have received mental treatment but do not appear to have improved, with Rucker’s mother, Tracey Davis, telling the newspaper her son suffers from schizophrenia, has undergone repeated hospitalization and “needs to be in a mental facility.”