Woman chases man she believes sexually assaulted her friend at a University of Chicago fraternity party

By Taylor Galgano, Bill Kirkos, CNN

Chicago (CNN) — Mia Lara’s first fraternity party ended with her chasing the man, who she believes sexually assaulted her friend, through the streets of Chicago.

The alleged sexual assault was reported last weekend at a fraternity house and is under investigation by the University of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department.

No suspects are in custody and police have not made any arrests, but the university said a person of interest has been identified. The man is not a University of Chicago student and has been banned from the campus, the university said.

Lara, 21, told CNN she arrived at an off-campus party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house with four friends around 11 p.m. on Saturday. Her two male friends were turned away at the door, leaving Lara and her two female friends to enter without them.

Lara said she and her friends do not attend the University of Chicago and did not know anyone at the party, which was advertised online, according to Lara. Around 1 a.m., four men approached her group and began dancing with them, she said.

One of the men, who Lara alleges later sexually assaulted her friend, appeared to zero in on her friend, Lara told CNN. The two started dancing and the man asked Lara’s friend to go up to his room.

The University of Chicago’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi said, “to the best of our knowledge, no one affiliated with AEPi was involved or complicit with this incident.”

“We condemn this violence unequivocally. Our concern is first and foremost for the person harmed, whose privacy and dignity we ask everyone to respect.”

The fraternity also said its members are continuing to work with authorities and provide any additional information as the investigation continues.

The university said fraternities are not formally affiliated with the University of Chicago, but student members “are subject to University policies and disciplinary procedures.”

The reported assault

Lara said her friend rejected the man’s advances to go upstairs, citing the 2024 alleged gang rape at Cornell.

“She was like, ‘No, I don’t want to, like you guys know what happened with the Cornell thing, I don’t want to be alone in any rooms,’” Lara said her friend said. The men responded they would never do anything like that, according to Lara.

Shortly after, Lara said her friend was kissing the man near a wall before the pair disappeared. She started searching for her friend and later found his friends outside a bathroom in the basement, but the man and her friend were not with them.

The man’s friends told Lara to look upstairs, so she and her other friend checked there, on the porch and outside, before returning to the basement bathroom.

When they returned, Lara said she saw the man’s friends “banging on the door,” “cheering,” and saying, “they want to get in there.”

A police report obtained by CNN affiliate WLS said the woman’s friends “reported seeing ‘approximately three to five males standing outside the bathroom door cheering and appearing to encourage the activity inside.’”

At this point, the group of men told Lara that their friend and her friend were inside the bathroom, she told CNN.

One of the men allegedly grabbed Lara’s other friend, told her not to worry and that the two were “having fun” in the bathroom, Lara said.

Though the door was locked, Lara said she found a way to shimmy it open and broke into the bathroom. She said she immediately told the man he needed to get off her friend and leave, but the man initially refused to leave.

Her friend was slumped on the bathroom floor, partially clothed, saying “get me out of here” and “I don’t want to be here,” Lara said, adding she had never seen her friend in that state before.

One of the victim’s friends told detectives that the “woman was not fully conscious, and the alleged attacker was standing over her partially undressed,” according to WLS.

The man began to approach Lara and the other friend, so Lara said she started kicking his legs until his friends eventually pulled him out of the bathroom. Lara was then able to help her friend get dressed and helped her out of the party.

A confrontation caught on video

When they got outside of the fraternity house, Lara said her friends went to sit on the sidewalk. She noticed the same group of men pointing and laughing at the woman who said she was assaulted, Lara said.

“I point at the guy, and I’m like, ‘You’re the one that was in the bathroom with her.’ I was like, ‘What did you do to her?’” Lara said.

The group claimed Lara got the wrong guy, but Lara said she recognized the man from seeing him in the bathroom.

The men then point in the direction of the fraternity house and say the man she’s looking for was trying to get back into the party. When Lara looks in the direction of the fraternity house, she says the men took off running, and so she took off after them.

At one point, the men slow down and start laughing at Lara, and one of them takes out his phone and starts recording her, she told CNN.

The video of the encounter was widely viewed and shared online. CNN has reached out to Chicago police and the University of Chicago for comment about the video, but did not immediately hear back.

The video shows Lara following a man while yelling at the camera, “He f**king assaulted my friend in the bathroom of a f**king frat party, you can record all the s**t you want.”

“I walk in there, you f**king took her clothes off,” Lara said in the video, to which the man responded, “She wanted to.”

CNN cannot confirm the man in the video is the accused perpetrator.

The investigation

In an earlier alert, the university said witnesses described the suspect as a “5’7” South Asian male with dark complexion, short hair on the sides and longer curly hair on top, wearing a black t-shirt, black jogging pants and white shoes.” It’s not yet clear whether the person of interest in the case matches that description.

Lara said a campus police officer witnessed her chasing the man and asked her what happened.

She said she took the officer back to her friend to get her help.

The friend would later tell Lara she remembered there were two men in the bathroom at one point, one of whom “was pinning her down” and sexually assaulted her, Lara told CNN.

The victim went to the University of Chicago Hospital for treatment, Chicago police said.

At the hospital, medical staff swabbed bruises on her friend for evidence, according to Lara.

The University of Chicago’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi said it became aware of the situation when the victim’s friend called over one of the fraternity’s “sober monitors,” and “we immediately responded and multiple members of the fraternity, including our risk manager, arrived at the scene, providing assistance to the victim.” The statement added a member stayed with her until the authorities arrived.

The Chicago Police Department is leading the investigation, with support from the University of Chicago Police Department, according to the university.

The University of Chicago called the reported assault “deeply concerning for the University community.”

“The safety and well-being of our students and all who come to our community is our highest priority. Many people at the University are working to support the victim and assist CPD in its response,” the university said.

Lara said her friend is doing “as best she can.”

“I was just like incredibly angry,” Lara said about that night. “And mad he got away.”

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CNN’s Whitney Wild, Julianna Bragg and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.