Local law enforcement leaders on Monday announced a slew of criminal charges filed against a man accused of sexually assaulting five women on the Northwest Side since mid-2022.
Chakib Masour Khodja, 36, faces 16 felony counts — including aggravated sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and unlawful restraint — and two other misdemeanors in connection with a string of alleged sexual assaults that occurred in Humboldt Park, Lake View and Logan Square. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Monday.
“This is a predator,” CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters at a Monday morning press conference at CPD headquarters, where he was joined by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke and members of the Area 5 Detective Division who investigated the attacks.
Snelling credited the five victims for their strength and willingness to seek charges against their attacker. The superintendent said witness and community cooperation also played a vital role.
“I want to acknowledge the strength and resilience of the survivors who were traumatized by these horrific crimes and actions of this individual,” Snelling 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.”
Snelling said Khodja was arrested Friday at O’Hare International Airport, Snelling said. He is alleged to have committed two attacks in May and June 2022 and three others in January and February of this year, according to police.
“Today the city is safer,” O’Neill Burke said. “Today every single woman in this city, every single man who has a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, should all be breathing a sigh of relief. This man was a violent serial predator who literally went out hunting for his victims.”
