One of the mentally ill men recently spotlighted in the media for attacking women in public places in the city has been sentenced to prison for seven years.

Derek Rucker, known on social media as a “puncher” because of his high-profile assaults on women on sidewalks and CTA platforms, has pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and burglary related to those attacks.

His case moved unusually fast. He was arrested Oct. 9 for punching a woman in the face on the Grand Avenue Red Line platform. And he was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in state prison, minus the month and a few days that he spent in the Cook County Jail.

Rucker, 37, has pleaded guilty to:

Striking a 62-year-old woman in the head Nov. 20, 2024 at 21 W. Illinois Ave. Hitting a female CTA employee in the back of the head Sept

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