Chicago Mayor’s Neighbor Allegedly Beat a Woman to Death with a Bat 

A Chicago daycare worker was charged with first degree murder after allegedly beating a woman with a baseball bat and dumping her body in the alley behind his home.

The medical examiner found that the victim sustained over 100 injuries to her face, head, and scalp, CWB reported. During the suspect, Ariel Smith’s, bail hearing on Tuesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord said the medical examiner had “never seen so many injuries on someone’s body.”

Smith is being held without bail.

Smith, 64, and the 41-year-old victim were previously acquainted and ran into each other on Friday, May 26, at 5:00 a.m at a Citgo gas station. The pair took a CTA bus to Smith’s home in the 5700 block of West Superior — right across the street from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s home.

The pair smoked crack, and the victim performed a sex act on Smith, according to McCord. The interaction allegedly turned violent when Smith accused the victim of stealing money from him and would not let her leave until she returned the money. He is accused of then beating her with a baseball bat, and stabbing her with a broken piece of pottery.

Smith allegedly wrapped the victim’s body in a comforter and dragged her out to the alley. Surveillance footage seems to show Smith trying to dump the body in the dumpster.

Neighbors discovered the body after returning from a pizza pickup.

Authorities secured a search warrant and allegedly found a bloody bat and a bloody shard of pottery. Police officers said Smith was covered with dried blood when he answered the door, and had an injured hand. He told the officers he injured it in a lawnmower accident.

Smith has no criminal background. He earned a degree in childhood development and worked at the same daycare for five years.

There have been 226 homicide victims in Chicago so far this year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. A quarter of them were killed in May alone.

Over Memorial Day weekend, eleven people were fatally shot.

According to Mayor Johnson these deaths are due to poverty.

“Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend,” Johnson told ABC News. “We understand that when communities have been disinvested in and traumatized, that you’re seeing the manifestation of that trauma.”