Prairie State Wire

This past weekend, an older man was robbed and assaulted on the CTA Red Line. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is still investigating the incident, but the video footage that captured the two assailants committing the crime has since gone viral on social media. 

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tio Hardiman of Violence Interrupters, NFP was on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft & Amy Jacobson Tuesday morning and discussed the recent violent attacks on innocent CTA riders in Chicago.

The recent attack occurred on a CTA Red Line and left the victim dazed and bleeding from the head after he was struck by a wine bottle. NBC 5 Chicago reported that multiple assailants are seen asking the man for his identification and then grabbing an unopened bottle of wine from him. One of the suspects proceeded to reach into the man’s pocket and steal his money while the other suspect struck him in the head with the wine bottle as the man attempted to stand up.

“It’s a sad state of affairs actually, for people riding the CTA,” Hardiman said. “A lot of passengers are really scared. They have to go to work, what else can they do? Women are being robbed, assaulted, you don't even hear about the stories, purses being snatched, and all those types of crimes. Yeah, you know a lot of the officials will say that they're doing a good job…put it like this: They just hired a K-9 unit, $30 million, $56,000 a day, and we still have issues on the train.”

CTA has been working with the Chicago Police Department to solve this crime. As a precaution, CPD issued a community alert as they continue to search for the suspects in the attack, according to NBC Chicago.

According to Chicago Police Department crime statistics for 2022, there has been 6,148 counts of robbery, up 17% from last year, and 4,451 counts of aggravated battery, down 6% from last year.