CTA violence persists despite pledge to increase safety

A man was stabbed on a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train Tuesday night, just a day after Chicago police pledged to increase CTA security in an effort to make public transportation safer.

The 37-year-old man had been riding a Red Line “L” train when he became involved in an argument with a woman around 10:30 p.m., police said. The pair exited the train at the Fullerton station, where the woman struck the man twice in the neck with a sharp object before running away, police said. Paramedics took the man to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in serious condition, officials said.

Much earlier in the day during an unrelated incident, Chicago police arrested a 22-year-old man was charged in connection with carrying a gun at the Roosevelt CTA station, 1167 S. State St., police said. According to a news release, around 1:10 a.m. officers saw the man “on a CTA platform, clutching onto his waistband area where (he) appeared to be concealing a firearm.”

The man started to run but he was stopped by members of the public transportation tactical team, police said. “A weapon was recovered,” and Erion Harrington, 22, was arrested on suspicion of unlawful use of a weapon, police said.

A few hours later, around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man who was riding a Red Line train had his bag stolen in another unrelated incident, police said. Officers responded, located and arrested the thief, police said.

Violence at CTA platforms and trains has spurred alarm in recent weeks. On Friday, a man shoved someone off a Near West Side train platform onto the tracks.

A week earlier, four people were stabbed when a group of six tried to rob a man at a Near North Side Red Line station.

Then, early Saturday, a 29-year-old was shot and killed while riding a Red Line train.

[ Chicago police to beef up CTA patrols after man slain on Red Line ]

CTA workers are doing “everything they can to stem these egregious acts of violence,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said at the time.

The Chicago Police Department is “dedicated to ensuring that the people who ride the CTA are safe,” Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference Monday.

CPD plans to add more officers and police dogs to the transit system in response to the recent violence, he said. Officers are being pulled from desk duties to help meet demand, he added. Brown said crime on CTA property is down 43%, when compared to pre-pandemic numbers from 2019.

CTA authorities and police planned to increase security in March to combat a spike in transit crime. They said they would double the number of unarmed security guards and add more police officers and supervisors to patrol the transit system.

Chicago Tribune reporters Paige Fry, Adriana Pérez and Shanzeh Ahmad contributed.