CPD Releases Photo Of Suspect In Red Line Attack
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The CTA is working with police to find a man accused of assaulting a woman on the Belmont Red Line platform.
CBS 2's Jeremy Ross has more on what happened.
The woman said she's happy the CTA is working to find the man responsible but admitted she's fearful enough it may be a while before she visits the station again.
It happened during a busy afternoon. A woman hoped to hop on a Red Line train at the Belmont station Friday.
Instead, she took a detour to the hospital.
"It felt like a hammer had hit the back of my head," she said as she asked CBS 2 not to show her face. "I'm still a little shook up."
"I have fractures in my hand leading up to my ring finger. A big cut on my knee. A deep laceration in the top back of my head where they had to put eight staples in to hold it back together," she said.
While on the platform, she saw a man urinating.
She told him to find a bathroom instead. An argument followed and then she said, an attack.
"I felt a punch to the back of my head," she said. "He just hit me so hard that I flew onto the tracks," she said.
"The third rail was within arm's length. The possibility of being hit by a train wasn't my first thought. It was being electrocuted."
The CTA said they have reviewed surveillance and are working with police.
On Sunday, the Chicago Police Department released this photo of the suspect.
He is described as an African-American male between 30-50 years of age, between 5'9 and 6'0" tall weighing around 200 lbs. He was wearing a black and camo-type jacket dark sweatpants with a small white Puma logo. He was also wearing a green baseball hat with a Chicago Cubs logo.
The transit agency added that each weekday they serve about 1.5 million riders, and in one out of every 250,000 customer trips a serious crime like this occurs.
"I'm not afraid of the CTA but this incident does kinda traumatizes you a little bit," said the woman.
"I hope they get caught," she said.
The woman said she expects thousands in medical bills and it may take months before she's fully healed.
The CTA is advising riders if you see something suspicious, call police first or notify a CTA worker.