We've written plenty about robberies, assaults, shootings, and stabbings on the "gun-free" property that belongs to the Chicago Transit Authority, but I think this is the first time I've ever covered the immolation of a defenseless rider by a violent offender.
On Monday night, Chicago police reported that a 26-year-old woman riding on a Blue Line train got into an argument with a fellow passenger. According to the Chicago police, the man ended up dumping some kind of flammable liquid on the woman's head and then set her on fire.
The website CWB reports that Chicago police do have a suspect in the horrific attack, and he's already been on the radar of local law enforcement. In fact, he's been arrested 22 times since 2016.
Chicago police have detained a suspect in connection with the horrific setting of a woman on fire aboard a Blue Line train in the Loop on Monday night, according to a source familiar with the investigation. And, the source says, the suspect is supposed to be wearing an ankle monitor for a pending aggravated battery case in which a Cook County judge refused to keep him in custody.
CWBChicago is not naming the man because he has not been criminally charged. But here’s what we know:
The man, who has a history of arson cases, including fires set downtown, was arrested around midday in the Loop as he prepared to board a train near Clark and Washington.
We have also learned that, contrary to the initial information released by CPD, there was no argument between the victim and the assailant. Rather, a source said, the attack appears completely random and unprovoked.
According to CWB Chicago, a Cook County judge rejected a request by prosecutors earlier this year to keep the man behind bars pending trial for the previous aggravated battery charge, and instead ordered him to wear an ankle monitor.
Originally, that monitoring was supposed to be round-the-clock, but just weeks after the monitoring was imposed another judge modified the terms and allowed him to be unmonitored, or at least leave his home, during daylight hours.
In addition to this heinous crime, there's been at least one armed robbery involving a firearm on a CTA train reported by the transit authority this week, and CWB Chicago reported last week on a string of violent robberies on the CTA's Red Line.
It's clear that violent criminals are ignoring the CTA's edict not to bring weapons onto its property, and it's equally evident that the "no guns allowed" policy that prohibits even those with a valid carry license from being arms in buses, trains, and train stations is putting the public at risk. The CTA has become a predator's playground, and the tens of thousands of unarmed riders provide a target-rich environment for violent actors.
The CTA's carry ban, along with the state of Illinois' public transportation carry ban, is being challenge in the Schoenthal v. Raoul case. A trial court judge originally ruled the law and CTA policy violate the Second Amendment, but a Seventh Circuit panel reversed the decision and upheld the ban. A cert petition was filed with the Supreme Court last month, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's reply brief is due before the Court on December 4.
The odds of the Supreme Court granting cert are pretty long, but as this horrific case shows, the stakes are literally life-and-death for Chicago riders. At the moment, the CTA's "gun-free zones" are giving violent criminals the upper hand, and it's time for SCOTUS to step up and allow riders a reasonable chance to defend themselves by exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Editor's Note: Radical lefties like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will stop at nothing to enact their gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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