Woman shot, killed on CTA Red Line platform on Chicago's South Side
Police were speaking with a person of interest Wednesday afternoon, after a woman was shot and killed during an argument on a CTA Red Line platform on Chicago's South Side the night before.
Around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, Chicago police said the victim got into a quarrel with another woman who took out a gun at the 69th Street Red Line platform. The victim was shot in the neck and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she later died.
The victim's identity has not been released, but police said she is between 25 and 35 years old.
Data show violent crime on the CTA is up from this same timeframe last year, but similar to what was seen in 2022 and 2023. Aggravated assaults and aggravated batteries both up this year.
This was the first homicide on the Chicago Transit Authority system this year.
Meanwhile around the same time as the shooting Tuesday night, a man was stabbed on a Red Line train at the Monroe stop in the State Street subway downtown.
As Chicago Police investigated both incidents late Wednesday, CBS News Chicago reached CTA officials to discuss the Zero Eyes gun detection technology, powered by artificial intelligence, which the agency rolled out as a pilot program in July of last year. The CTA officially announced it was using the tech in August.
CBS News Chicago wanted to find out if the technology was making a difference in preventing violent crimes.
In a promotional video the CTA showed in August, ZeroEyes said it uses existing surveillance video cameras, coupled with its own artificial intelligence, to detect guns. The CTA in August also shared a demonstration of the ZeroEyes software on the Blue Line — using various types of guns in different locations.
The CTA's one-year contract with ZeroEyes is valued at up to $200,000. Officials never released locations for what they called security reasons — and for that reason, it is hard to track whether the technology is working.
CTA officials said no one was available to go over violence on the system with CBS News Chicago on Wednesday. However, the CTA did release this statement about the shooting and stabbing on the Red Line Tuesday night:
"At this time, there is nothing to suggest that these two recent incidents were random attacks.
"The Chicago Police Department (CPD) leads all law enforcement efforts across CTA's system. The CTA is supporting CPD's investigation into both matters in any way possible, including providing access to security camera footage.
"To help provide a safe transit environment, the CTA has made myriad investments over the last decade to expand existing resources and add new, innovative tools to help deter incidents of crime and aid police in their investigations of incidents that do occur.
"One such investment is the ongoing piloting of ZeroEyes technology, which helps bolster the effectiveness of select cameras in our network by utilizing AI to detect visible firearms.
"Since commencing this pilot, the technology has had dozens of positive detections of lethal and non-lethal brandished weapons. This has resulted in quicker notifications to law enforcement and responses to the scene by police."
Again, the CTA said for security reasons, it cannot disclose specific locations where ZeroEyes tech is in use.
Police confirmed detectives are speaking with a person of interest in the deadly shooting Tuesday night. No formal arrests have been made.
The investigations into both the shooting and the stabbing remain ongoing.
Teen was shot last month on CTA Red Line train
These latest incidents come nearly four weeks after a shooting on a CTA Red Line train.
On Feb. 20, a man and a 13-year-old boy were shot on a train at the Sox-35th Street station.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing. No arrests have been made.
