Hate Crime Charges For Bolingbrook Man After Halloween Attack

BOLINGBROOK, IL — A Bolingbrook man has been charged with three counts of committing a hate crime and two additional charges of aggravated battery after an attack on Halloween that left a woman with severe injuries.

Cord Krol, 53, was originally charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault.

Bolingbrook Police said it worked with the Will County State's Attorney's Office over the past several weeks, and after review of evidence and interviews with witnesses, it announced the upgraded charges on Thursday.

Patch recently spoke to Tara Robinson, whose skull was fractured in the attack on Halloween, and she questioned why Krol had not received more severe charges.

Robinson was out trick-or-treating with her family, when Krol began yelling racial slurs, according to the Bolingbrook Police report obtained by Patch. Krol became more aggressive, according to witness statements from the police report. He approached another woman with a metal stake before Robinson's husband intervened, according to the report.

Krol then struck Robinson on top of her head with the stake, leading to a physical altercation between Robinson's husband and Krol, according to the report.

Robinson spent several days in the hospital before she was sent home, she told Patch. But after a few days at home, Robinson still had a terrible headache and was readmitted to the hospital, where she had an emergency surgery for an abscess on her brain, she said.

Black Lives Matter Will County held a rally in support of Robinson over the weekend, calling for the state's attorney's office to indict Krol with a hate crime or upgrade his charges accordingly.

"This is about justice for Tara," Karl Ferrell, the chair of Black Lives Matter Will County, said.

According to the Will County indictment for the hate crime charges, Krol "by reason of the perceived race of Tara Robinson," knowingly battered Robinson and caused bodily harm, while she was on a public way, a sidewalk within 1,000 feet of a public park.

In addition to the hate crime charges for actions against Robinson, Krol was charged with a hate crime for approaching another woman "in an aggressive manner while displaying a stake," the indictment reads.

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