Chicago area homeless service agency remembers "sweet" woman who was killed in Blue Line shooting
EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) -- Margaret Miller Johnson, one of the four people shot and killed on a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train this week, is remembered for her sweet demeanor and beautiful smile.
People who had known Johnson for years at Connections for the Homeless in Evanston said they were not sure what Johnson was doing on the train in Forest Park early Monday—since the last time they had heard from her, she was in housing.
But such an outcome for unhoused people is something those at Connections for the Homeless worry about every day.
"I just thought, 'I hope it's none of our people,'" said Betty Bogg, chief executive officer of Connections for the Homeless. "But everybody is somebody's person."
Johnson was "one of theirs" at Connections for the Homeless, formerly the Center for Public Ministry, which has served those struggling with homelessness since 1984.
"She had those glasses that make your eyes look just gigantic, you know?" Bogg said. "So she would look up at me with this beautiful smile, and so sweet."
Johnson first came to Connections for the Homeless in 2018, when she was living in a truck with her husband Nick.
Boggs says the couple moved into Connections' hotel-based shelter at the Margarita European Inn in Evanston in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic—before getting into an apartment in Des Plaines through a housing voucher. Bogg said her organization also helped Johnson move the paperwork into her name when Nick died in 2022.
Johnson mourned her husband that year at an annual memorial service that Connections holds for staff and clients who pass away. Bogg said Connections for the Homeless does not know why she was sleeping on the Blue Line train.
"People feel like they're going to disappoint us if they didn't maintain their housing, and it makes it hard for people to ask for help," she said, "and I imagine that could have been the case for her."
Johnson, 64, was killed along with Simeon Bihesi, 28; Adrian Collins, 60; and a still unidentified 52-year-old man. They were all found shot early Monday on a Blue Line train when it arrived at the Forest Park terminal.
Rhanni Davis, 30, faces four counts of first-degree murder in their slayings.
"I've been doing this for 30 years, and every day something like this could have happened to somebody that we worked with every day," Bogg said. "People are extremely vulnerable.
The Night Ministry holds a weekly outreach at the same station where Johnson's body was found by a CTA worker. Organizers said the nonprofit sees 150 to 200 people on an average Thursday night.
This week, the Night Ministry planned to send extra staff. A representative said the Night Ministry was out at The Forest Park station on Thursday night.
Both organizations hope to keep people struggling with homelessness secure in a space they'd previously believed was one of their safest options.
"They were somebody's kid. They were somebody's dad, brother," said Bogg. "They belonged in this world."
Just as Margaret Miller Johnson remembered her husband Nick during the Connections yearly memorial service in 2022, Connections will remember her this year—at an event coming up on Sept. 24.
Connections also plans to honor the others who were killed in the Blue Line shooting.
