Police to increase CTA presence after man shot, killed on Red Line train in Chatham
CHICAGO (CBS) – A man is dead after being shot on a CTA Red Line train car in the Chatham neighborhood Saturday morning.
Police said around 2:05 a.m., a 29-year-old man was on the train car, in the 0-100 block of West 79th Street, when an unknown male fired shots.
The victim was transported to the University of Chicago Hospital with gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen and was pronounced dead.
Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown said with crime rapidly increasing, they are amping up security. He said to expect to see more officers on CTA trains as early as Sunday.
This comes just two days after a man was stabbed on a CTA Red Line train near Roosevelt.
Chicago Police held a news conference Saturday to address the recent uptick in violence.
"No resident should think twice about their safety on any part of the CTA or in our neighborhoods," Brown said. "Our department continues to expand our presence on the CTA as long as proactive policing strategies through adding more and more Chicago Police officers to the CTA. We're adding another contingent to teh CTA tomorrow."
While Brown said there is a demand for more officers in the Loop and other neighborhoods in the city, right now they are prioritizing the CTA and collaborating with CTA officials on new safety measures.
"We are going to be bringing back the K-9 security guard teams to the CTA as another way to expand our security presence on both our trains and in our stations," he said.
Police and CTA officials said while they cannot promise these tactics will prevent crime, they are hoping they will help deter violence.
Those tactics include, "doing platform patrols at various key stations that we identify as well as assisting in our terminals in the sweeping and clearing of the cars at the end of the night," he said.
No one is in custody in Saturday's incident as police investigate.
