Chicago Visitor Stabbed While Dining In Gold Coast Hotel Restaurant

Here’s a public relations nightmare for the City of Chicago and its bustling tourism industry:

An out-of-town visitor in the city for a major holiday festival is attacked and stabbed inside a downtown Chicago hotel restaurant bathroom Saturday night in what some are saying is a failed robbery.

Dawn Rhodes and Adam Sege wrote on the Chicago Tribune website this morning:

A man who listed his address as a homeless shelter has been charged with stabbing a 67-year-old man who was dining with his family at a restaurant on North Michigan Avenue, police said.

Jimmy Harris, 56, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with intent to do great bodily harm and aggravated unlawful restraint, police said.

Harris is accused of attacking Mir Jafar Shah, of Oak Brook, in the restroom of a restaurant in the Westin Hotel around 8 p.m. Saturday officials said.

A second man, reportedly a bartender, was cut trying to stop Harris from fleeing, police said. Harris was arrested near the hotel and a knife recovered, police said.

Shah and the bartender both survived their injuries and are expected to make full recoveries.

The same can’t be said for sure about Chicago tourism this holiday season.

Something tells me the Westin and/or its eatery is going to be slapped with a lawsuit over the incident based on a statement made by one of the victim’s family members this weekend. I won’t be surprised to hear other downtown hotels with restaurants will probably be reviewing their security procedures after what took place Saturday night. Or that they blame the City for not having more of a police presence in the area during the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival- if not at other times.

If City Hall “loses” downtown to the bad guys… you lose the tourists, their money, revenue… you get the point.

-Survival And Prosperity, May 4, 2011

Source:

Rhodes, Dawn and Sege, Adam. “Charges in stabbing at restaurant along Mag Mile.” Chicago Tribune. 19 Nov. 2012. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-1-injured-in-attack-outside-north-michigan-avenue-hotel-20121117,0,4467911.story). 19 Nov. 2012.