A suspect has been taken into custody after he allegedly shot four commuter train passengers in the Chicago area on Monday, and police believe the victims were asleep when they were gunned down.
Police in Forest Park, a suburb west of Chicago, said that security footage showed the victims were all seated apart from each other and appeared to be asleep when they were shot, NBC News reported. The Forest Park Police Department said it received a call at 5:27 a.m. on Monday from someone saying three people had been shot on the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train at the Forest Park Station. When police responded, they found four gunshot victims — three of whom were pronounced dead at the scene and another who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The shooter escaped, and Chicago police later arrested a suspect who matched the description of the commuter train shooter and recovered a firearm. The suspect’s name has not been released and authorities have not said if there was motive in the shooting. None of the victims’ names, ages, or genders have been revealed.
“This appears to be an isolated incident with no immediate threat to the community,” the Forest Park Police Department said in a statement.
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“It’s a horrible situation,” Forest Park Police Deputy Chief Chris Chin added.
Chin said at a news conference that the shooting took place on two train cars, and the train was in motion and approaching Forest Park when the shooting occurred.
Fatal shootings in Chicago — while dropping from the record highs set in 2020 and 2021 — spiked during the summer. Over the July 4 weekend this year, 109 people were shot and 19 were killed, including an 8-year-old boy. Labor Day weekend saw another 26 people wounded and five people killed in addition to the four people killed on the commuter train.
Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the violence over the 4th of July and blamed former Republican President Richard Nixon, saying, “Black death has been, unfortunately, accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes, and people mocked President [Lyndon] Johnson. And we ended up with Richard Nixon.”
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Jim Byron, the president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, responded to Johnson’s claim and said, “What is happening in Chicago is heartbreaking, and I imagine the people of Chicago want leaders who take responsibility and work together to solve problems rather than try and pass the blame, in this case ridiculously and gratuitously.”
