CTA employee in custody after shooting man inside Red Line station in Longwood Manor
CHICAGO (CBS) – A CTA employee is in custody after police say he shot a man inside a Red Line station early Saturday morning in the Longwood Manor neighborhood.
Police said around 1:55 a.m. the employee and another man were in a verbal and physical altercation at 15 W. 95th St. After the victim began to walk away down the stairs, the employee retrieved a handgun and shot the victim three times.
Video shows the customer yelling at the worker with his hands in the air, before pushing him to the ground.
It sounds like the customer is shouting, "Stop. Stop." while the employee is still on the ground.
The victim seems to walk down the stairs when the worker gets up, walks over to the stairs, and fires his weapon at least 10 times.
Sources tell CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot that when officers arrived the employee uttered that he shot at someone. The handgun was recovered from a backpack located next to the employee in the station's booth.
The employee said the victim was disturbing other customers inside the station when he intervened and was pushed to the ground.
The victim was shot in the lower abdomen, back, and lower left leg and was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition.
The employee was placed into custody.
In a statement, the CTA confirms that the employee was working as a customer assistant.
"Based on our own investigation, we can also confirm that this employee was in violation of several CTA workforce rules, including one that expressly prohibits the possession of a firearm. CTA is pursuing termination of this employee," the CTA said in a statement.
CTA is working closely with Chicago Police as the investigation continues.
Recent data shows an uptick in crime on the CTA. The unions representing Chicago bus drivers and rail operators tracked almost 400 physical and verbal assaults against their members last year. CBS 2 is waiting to hear back from the CTA on its numbers this year so far.
CBS 2 also looked into CTA crime data and found 644 violent crimes on trains and buses in 2021 -- up from 579 in 2020.