Man stabbed on Orange Line train near downtown Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) — A man was seriously injured in a stabbing on a Chicago Transit Authority train early Friday morning in the Loop.
Around 4:30 a.m., police said the 32-year-old man was on an Orange Line train just south of the Washington/Wells stop on the Loop 'L' when two men pulled out a cutting instrument and stabbed the victim in the left side of his abdomen.
The victim got off the train at the Washington/Wells stop and he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition.
Police attempted to track down two possible offenders. One was spotted from platform cameras—wearing a ski mask and black pants.
This was one of several recent early-morning violent crimes on the CTA system—notoriously including a shooting at 5:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 2, that left four people dead on a Blue Line train in west suburban Forest Park
The CBS News Data Team dug into violent crimes by category for CTA trains, stations, and platforms, and found that year-to-date, violent crime is up on the CTA systemwide—mostly driven by an increase in robberies.
There have been 306 robberies on CTA property so far this year, compared to 230 robberies by the same time period last year.
As for why the early-morning hours have been a trouble spot, an expert says it might have to do with low ridership.
"Public transportation has been seeing only about 60% recovery from the pre-pandemic levels, which means there's a healthy 40% that is still missing—and not all of that can be attributed to work from home," said Dr. P.S. Sriraj, Director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Sriraj said low ridership in the early morning hours is leading to a cycle of violence.
"The agency may not have the resources to fortify and make the system better because they are losing ridership to begin with, so something has to give, and then it has to be a coalition of the agency along with the government—be it state or city or local—and make sure they are putting up a public-facing effort to address these issues," Sriraj said. "The step in the right direction will bring the users back."
It was unclear late Friday whether the stabbing in the morning could have been connected to a robbery in any way.
The CTA released this statement late Friday afternoon:
"Rider and employee safety is our No. 1 priority.
"The Chicago Police Department (CPD), which is responsible for law enforcement for the vast majority of our transit system, works closely with us on strategies, measures and technologies to help aid in deterring and investigating crimes when they do occur on CTA's expansive transit system made up of over 3,300 vehicles, 220 miles of rail track, and 1,500 bus route miles. To support the efforts of local law enforcement, over the last decade we have invested more in security measures than ever before. These investments include the updating and expansion of our comprehensive network of more than 33,000 security cameras; expansion of both unarmed guards and two-person canine teams who are deployed across the system 24/7; increasing funding for CPD's voluntary specialty employment (VSEP) program, which provides volunteer, off duty officers to patrol the system."
On Friday, Chicago Police would only say that no other injuries were reported, and Belmont Area detectives were investigating.