Four people were shot to death Monday morning on a Blue Line train in west suburban Forest Park.
About 5:30 a.m., officers responded to the Forest Park Blue Line station at 711 Desplaines Ave. and found four people shot inside a train, Forest Park police said.
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.
“It’s a horrible situation, it’s definitely something that you don’t want to wake up to,” Forest Park Deputy Police Chief Christopher Chin told reporters outside the station. “Everyone’s supposed to be enjoying their time off … it’s horrible.”
The shooting happened as the train was in motion and those shot were all passengers, Chin said.
“I’m grieving, my heart goes out to those families and to those who lost their lives in this senseless, wicked act,” Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters Tuesday morning. “We grieve for the loss of these lives, but we’re gonna double-down on our efforts to make sure that we build a better, stronger, safer society.”
Johnson called on members of Congress to “ensure that there are sensible gun laws in this country.”
“Whether it’s Highland Park or whether it’s Forest Park … when you have people who have access to guns and they take that wickedness with them around the planet, these tragedies unfortunately happen.”
Last week, CTA announced it is one month into a yearlong pilot program with ZeroEyes, a company that uses artificial intelligence to identify guns in surveillance video and alert police.
The CTA said it has deployed the technology on about 250 cameras at L stations — but it won’t say which stations, citing security concerns.
Johnson told reporters “gun detection in and of itself is incomplete” as long as people can access firearms illegally.
Detectives on Tuesday were attempting to reach and interview those who witnessed the shooting.
“We got multiple shell casings … several passengers appear to be deceased,” someone could be heard saying on the radio. “… Appears to be three individuals unresponsive on the same rail car. … Doesn’t appear to be any witnesses. No one reported it.”
Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins called the shooting an “outlier” and asked for leaders in Springfield to consider investing in additional public safety resources as part of any CTA mass transit reorganization to “support a small community like Forest Park.”
Hoskins told WGN-TV that the victims were shot to death point-blank as they slept on the train.
“Forest Park is the only community in Cook County … with two major train lines that end in Forest Park.” Hoskins told reporters. “It’s a horrible tragedy that four people are dead on Labor Day weekend.”
The shooting is believed to be random, and officials ruled out a robbery or altercation as motives for the attack.
Forest Park police 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.
“We extend our condolences to those who lost their loved ones as a result of this senseless act of crime – our thoughts and prayers are with them,” CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr. said in a statement.
“Although this was an isolated incident, this heinous and egregious act of violence should never have occurred, none the less on a public transit train,” the CTA said in a statement. “As soon as this matter was reported, CTA immediately deployed resources to assist the Forest Park Police in their investigation into the matter, including review of all possible security camera footage, which proved to be vital in aiding local law enforcement.”
Officials believe the suspect in custody was the only shooter, and the shooting was an “isolated incident.”
“It could happen anywhere, obviously there is a little bit more concern because it was on a mass transit system, but understand that there are security measures in place,” Chin said.
Blue Line trains between Forest Park and Austin began running again Monday night about 7:30 p.m.
The Forest Park Blue Line station entrance was blocked off by crime scene tape as police investigated the scene. By 11:45 a.m., the scene was quiet aside from investigators working and some members of the media.
CTA buses serving as a Blue Line shuttle waited near the entrance to transport passengers to and from the Austin Blue Line stop, with stops at Harlem and Oak Park, as the train stood still on the platform.
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.
Contributing: Cindy Hernandez, Kyra Senese and Peyton Reich