Chicago police to beef up CTA patrols after 4 homicides overnight, including man slain on Red Line

A 29-year-old man was shot and killed while riding on a Red Line train early Saturday on the South Side and Chicago Police Department said they will be increasing their presence on the CTA as soon as Sunday.

The Red Line attack, was a “senseless act of violence that has no place anywhere in the city, and especially not on the CTA,” said President Dorval Carter Jr. during a news conference Saturday afternoon at police headquarters in the South Loop.

The CTA is doing “everything they can to stem these egregious acts of violence,” Carter added.

“Violent crime is up,” and that’s why police are adding more resources, said Superintendent David Brown, who said the man was riding a northbound train in the 100 block of West 79th Street about 2:05 a.m. when he was shot multiple times.

That man — one of four fatal shootings in the city overnight — was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center and Brown said nobody was arrested.

“Incidents like these, whether on the CTA or in our neighborhoods have no place in this city,” Brown said. “It is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. No resident should think twice about their safety on any part of the CTA or in our neighborhoods.”

The police department is “committed to do whatever it takes” to make the CTA and the city safer overall and announced another team of Chicago police officers — including K-9 dogs — will be added to the CTA Sunday, Brown said.

Brown did not disclose how many more officers will be added or where they will focus their efforts.

“The CTA is a priority for this department and for this city,” Brown said, adding that protecting every neighborhood and city agency is a “balancing act,” because many people are seeking more security and there are only so many resources at hand.

“We are collaborating with the CTA to enhance safety for our riders, and we know the CTA is vital to our culture and our commerce and it’s how hardworking Chicagoans get to work, school and countless other places and events and back home again,” Brown said.

“Our department continues to expand our presence on the CTA as well as our proactive policing strategies through adding more and more Chicago police officers to the CTA.”

In addition to the increased police presence, CTA will also bring back K-9 security guard teams, according to Carter, who said the details of canine deployment are still being worked out but expects to have an announcement with more information “in the very near future.”

“In the meantime, both CPD and CTA will remain focused on keeping the system safe and seeking any ways that we can to make it even safer,” Carter said.

Three additional homicides occurred overnight and were brought up at the news conference.

One of the three happened about 3:15 a.m. at 210 W. 87th St. in the city’s West Chatham neighborhood, where a 26-year-old man was standing in a parking lot with several people, and one or two unknown individuals fired shots in the group’s direction, said Chicago police Deputy Chief of Detectives Rahman Muhammad during the meeting. The man was hit multiple times and was pronounced after being taken to Stroger Hospital.

Another man, 29, was killed in the city’s Printer’s Row neighborhood in the Loop at 430 S. Clark St., around 3:20 a.m. that also left another person injured, Muhammad said.

The man was taken to Northwestern Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead. The second person, a 23-year-old man, was also taken to Northwestern Hospital with gunshot wounds to the right leg and arm.

Muhammad said the 23-year-old man told police there was an “argument or altercation” leading up to the shooting, and multiple shots were fired in the direction of the two men.

The most recent fatal shooting happened about 5:15 a.m. on the West Side, at 4040 W. Monroe St., Muhammad said. There, a 30-year-old man was found unresponsive and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the back and neck. He was later pronounced at the hospital.

Muhammad said no one is in custody for any of the homicides, and they continue to probe the attacks.