The person suspected of fatally shooting four passengers on a Blue Line train in Forest Park Monday morning has previously faced charges for illegally possessing a gun and hanging around a downtown department store during a wave of looting in 2020.
The suspect, 30, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting at the California Pink Line stop, according to officials and Chicago police radio traffic. A gun was recovered.
The suspect has been charged in at least five criminal cases in Cook County since November 2012, using three different names, court records show. The suspect has used a variety of addresses, including an address in Nashville, Tenn.
The Sun-Times isn’t naming the suspect because charges have not yet been filed in the shooting.
The suspect was most recently arrested in Riverdale in November 2022 for illegally possessing a 2020 Ford Fusion that had been rented, court records show. The suspect was charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to a vehicle that was later dropped.
In February 2021, the suspect was charged with a misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a weapon after Chicago police found a gun and a bullet magazine in the suspect’s satchel following a crash. At the time, the suspect had a license to own the gun but wasn’t permitted to carry it publicly, court records show. The charge was ultimately dropped.
Months before that arrest — in August 2020 — the suspect was caught inside of the now-shuttered Bloomindale’s department at 600 N. Wabash Ave. after it was stormed during a wave of looting, court records show.
The suspect pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to one-day in Cook County Jail.
The person was previously sentenced to two years of court supervision after being charged with a misdemeanor count of battery in Chicago, court records show. Before that, the suspect was charged with a misdemeanor retail theft charge after being arrested in Evanston.
Police were alerted to the shooting around 5:30 a.m. Monday as a train pulled into the Forest Park Blue Line station at 711 Desplaines Ave. Two men and a woman died at the scene, and a fourth person, a 60-year-old man, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he later died, police said.
“We got multiple shell casings … several passengers appear to be deceased,” a first responder radioed from the scene. "Appears to be three individuals unresponsive on the same rail car. … Doesn’t appear to be any witnesses. No one reported it.”
Officials said the four victims were in two different cars and appeared to be sleeping when gunfire erupted.
Forest Park police said they worked with CTA security to put together a description of the suspected shooter, and Chicago police arrested someone matching the description on a Pink Line train. A handgun was also recovered.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact the Forest Park Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (708) 366-2425 or by emailing Detectives@ForestPark.net.
