An 18-year-old woman is dead from a stab wound to the neck in Englewood, and an 18-year-old man sits in Cook County custody charged with her murder — another young life lost in a city where working neighborhoods pay the price when the justice system won't keep violent offenders off the streets.
Alfredo Tzoy, 18, of Englewood, was arrested shortly after the early Tuesday attack that left the still-unidentified woman dead on the 7300 block of South Emerald Avenue, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He faces a murder charge and a detention hearing Thursday — the moment where prosecutors must decide whether to argue that an accused killer belongs behind bars.
Police found the woman on the ground with a stab wound to the neck. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead. Officers searching the area discovered Tzoy on a nearby porch with a cut to his right hand. A knife was recovered.
The victim's name hasn't been released. She was 18.
The Detention Question
Under Illinois' no-cash-bail system, Tzoy's Thursday hearing won't be about whether he can afford to post bond. It will be about whether Cook County prosecutors make the case that he's too dangerous to release — and whether a judge agrees. The system was sold as a way to keep dangerous people locked up while freeing the nonviolent poor. In practice, communities like Englewood keep watching accused offenders cycle back onto their streets.
Fifty miles south in Will County, the same pattern plays out with different faces. Gurcharan Singh, a 39-year-old from Surrey, British Columbia, now faces 14 charges including attempted murder after a September 17 stabbing in Plainfield that left an adult woman and a juvenile female with knife lacerations, Patch reported. The adult victim told officers the attack began as a verbal argument inside the residence before turning physical.
Singh had been in Will County Jail twice before this incident — May 29 through 31, and again June 1 through 4, according to Patch. The details of those prior stays aren't in the public record from the reporting, but the trajectory is familiar: in custody, back out, then facing more serious charges.
Who Pays
In Englewood, an 18-year-old woman is dead. In Plainfield, two females survived knife attacks. The accused are in custody. The question that remains is whether the system that produced these outcomes — that had prior contact with at least one of these defendants and released him — will do anything different next time. Don't hold your breath.
