Fresh from the terror of being threatened with death and nearly kidnapped at gunpoint, Joumana Youssef walked into the Du Page County Courthouse last month and sought an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend, Khaled Chamoun.
In a handwritten petition, the Schaumburg woman told of how, on July 17,
”I was held for approximately five hours against my will . . . and was threatened to be killed” by Chamoun, a Lisle resident. A temporary order of protection was issued July 21, according to court personnel, and on Wednesday Youssef was to return to court and argue for an extension.
But on Sunday night, Youssef discovered what other battered and threatened women have already learned: Her protective order provided her with scant protection.
Police said Chamoun broke into Youssef`s apartment Sunday and waited for her to return. When she did, authorities said, he attacked her companion and dragged her out into his van, vowing to kill her.
Her nightmare ended 50 miles later at the end of a chase when a state police officer killed him with a single shot, officials said.
In suffering a broken nose and facial cuts, Youssef, 24, became one of those women who have sought protective orders against abusive husbands or boyfriends, only to be attacked again.
There was Shirley Prudhomme, who was shot four times and killed last November in Libertyville by her former husband, Claude, despite a protective order against him. Connie Chaney was shot down on St. Patrick`s Day by her estranged husband, Wayne, in the Mt. Prospect ad agency where she worked. And just last month, Ramona Johnson was shot and wounded at a Countryside shopping plaza by her estranged husband, Steven, a few weeks after he kidnapped and raped her, according to police.
These and other cases prompted legislators to pass Illinois` new stalking law. Under the measure, signed by Gov. Jim Edgar on July 12, a stalker who uses a deadly weapon or harms a victim would face up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
But even such stiff penalties do little to deter the most determined, experts say, underscoring the limitations that police and court authorities have in trying to shield women who are threatened with violence. When rage takes over, no document can be an effective shield.
”To a nut, it`s a piece of paper. It`s not a gun,” said Barbara Green, an 11-year volunteer with LifeSpan, a woman`s advocacy and counseling group based in Des Plaines. ”When they`re bent on vengeance, it doesn`t make any difference.
”Everybody feels so helpless,” she added. ”Even if a woman has an order of protection, she`d have to have a bodyguard (to stay safe). And who can afford a bodyguard?”
In Youssef`s case, authorities said that Chamoun, 29, entered her apartment at in the 1100 block of Knollwood Drive through a balcony entrance and lay in wait for Youssef and a friend, Ben Foster, 35, who neighbors said had gone out together to see a movie.
Chamoun was armed with a baton-type weapon, a pellet gun thought to be a .45-caliber handgun and a phony grenade, police said. He beat Foster and Youssef with the baton as soon as they entered the apartment shortly before 10 p.m., according to Schaumburg Lt. Edward Pope.
The struggle to get Youssef into a waiting van continued outside the apartment. The three fought in the apartment building`s hallway and Foster was pushed through a 2-inch thick plate-glass window at the building`s entrance, Pope said.
Chamoun then brandished his pistol, Pope said, and told Foster to stay back or he would kill Youssef. Foster, bleeding from his injuries, returned to Youssef`s apartment, called police and drove himself to Humana Hospital in Hoffman Estates. He was treated and released.
Meanwhile, witnesses said, Youssef continued to fight off her ex-boyfriend, who was using the butt of his gun and his hands to beat her and force her into a vehicle parked nearly 60 feet away in the parking lot.
”I just saw them rolling around on the ground,” said Terry Kayser, a resident of Youssef`s building. ”I was going call the police, but he screamed that if I did anything he would kill her. Then he got on top of her and kept hitting her with the gun.”
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Kathy Karris, a resident of a nearby building who was outside at the time, saw Chamoun drag Youssef across the length of a parking lot to his van by pulling on her hair and shirt.
”At first I thought he was trying to help her up,” she said. ”But then I saw the gun and I saw that he was keeping it to her head. And when he got her to the van, he kept hitting her in the head and face.”
Schaumburg police, who said they had been alerted by 11 phone calls to their enhanced 911 emergency phone system, responded to the scene within three minutes, just as Chamoun was pulling away in his van, according to Pope.
Chamoun then led police on a 45-minute chase that at times reached speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour and included detours onto Illinois Highway 53, the North-South Tollway and Interstate Highway 55, while at least 10 local and state police cars pursued him, authorities said.
The chase wound south on the North-South Tollway then turned east on I-55, according to State Police Capt. Robert Johnson. Meanwhile, he said, Chamoun continued to beat Youssef with his gun and hands. The 50-mile pursuit ended when Chamoun`s vehicle experienced a flat tire on I-55 and pulled off on the shoulder of the Cicero Avenue exit, Pope said.
At that point, officers with drawn guns ordered Chamoun out of the vehicle. Chamoun refused at first, but finally exited on the van`s passenger side, near a grassy knoll, while pressing the gun to Youssef`s head and threatening to kill her if anyone approached her, Johnson said.
It was then that a state police officer, whom officials would not identify, fired one shot at Chamoun from 10 feet away, killing him, Johnson said.
Johnson said the trooper decided to fire because of Chamoun`s apparent instability and the clear danger to Youssef, and because he was so close.
”The guy repeatedly states he`s going to kill her,” Johnson said. The officer ”was faced with a real quick decision. I have no doubts that
(Chamoun) would have killed her had he gotten away from that house undetected by police.”