A video captures an elderly man bleeding profusely after two attackers rummaged through his pockets for cash and then one of them hit him in the head with a full wine bottle on a Chicago train.
The victim is seen sitting on the Red line just after 2:00 a.m. on September 24 when he is confronted by a guy with a beard and another suspect wearing a ski mask on a Chicago Transit Authority train travelling toward the 95th Street/Dan Ryan station.
The bearded attacker and his accomplice round the man, demand his identity, and then begin checking his pockets, leading him to retreat.
‘Where’s your wallet,’ one attacker says. ‘Let me see your ID.’
The other says, ‘Can I get $5?’
One of the attackers removes a full bottle of white wine from his jacket pocket, while the other seems to remove cash and some cards.
The second thief drops the wine bottle, and the two thieves begin to argue over a little score.
The victim, who seems shaky on his feet in the early hours of the Chicago morning, attempts to get his belongings, but loses his balance and sits back down on the bench of the subway vehicle.
Unprovoked, the attacker in the ski mask takes up the wine bottle from the floor and smashes it on the victim’s head while onlookers in the virtually empty vehicle scream in horror.
‘Oh, my Gooooood,’ one witness screams.
The victim grabs his head with his hands as two other subway perpetrators– a woman with a flaming red wig on and a man in a green hoodie, appear in the video frame and gravitate toward the man counting the cash he lifted off his prey.
The camera shifts back to the victim, whose head appears to be split open and a pool of blood forms on the floor of the train car.
‘Charmaine,’ the witness says, appearing to address the woman in the wig. ‘He’s bad. He’s bleeding.’
Just then the train comes to a halt at the 95th Street/Dan Ryan station.
‘This why I don’t ride the Redline,’ Teshaun Terry, who posted the video on Facebook, wrote. ‘Y’all Be Safe At Night On The CTA‼️
Terry, who did not respond to a MailOnline request for an interview, added ‘Yall can help find these disgusting man [sic]. They said they do this all the time.’
Chicago police and the CTA are asking for the public’s help in finding the two assailants.
‘This kind of behavior is absolutely reprehensible and should not happen to any CTA customer,’ officials told the Fox News Chicago. ‘CTA began working very closely with CPD immediately after the incident was reported, including sharing relevant video from our security camera system.’
Chicago, which has a reputation for gun violence, has actually seen a 15 percent decline in murders over the last month from the year before and a similar 18 percent drop in shootings.
Overall, however, crime has spiked by 37 percent from 2021 and violent crimes like robbery is up 6 percent, according to police statistics.
Chicago police had no information on what was stolen. Cops said that they are seeking four males for the attack, though it’s unclear from the video that four men were involved. The victim is recovering from the attack.
‘When I finished watching it, as you saw, it’s painful to watch,’ Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez told NBC News Chicago. ‘You feel the pain.’
He called for the mayor to put more cops in the transit system.
‘We must reinstate an separate Transit Police now, riding the trains & walking platforms, in order to bring safety back to public transportation,’ he said on Twitter.
Transit riders said that they fear using the Second City’s transit system because of the increased crime on the line.
‘Actually I have anxiety and it’s really been getting to me, riding the train by myself,’ CTA rider Breann Carroll told ABC 7 Chicago. ‘It’s just a lot and I kind of do fear for my life. But I don’t really have another way to get to work, so what do you do?’
Crime on the system risks the economic stability of the middle class, said one Chicagoan.
‘You try to go to work, pay your taxes and pay your bills, and this is what you have to go through?’ Activist Bishop Anthony Scales told ABC. ‘Every day? When is it going to change?’