The man whose electrocution at a South Side Red Line station late last month was ruled a homicide jumped to his death to escape a group of men chasing him, newly released records show.
After the man died late on the night of Aug. 27 at the 79th Street Red Line station, the Cook County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide and referred further questions to police. The Chicago police were, though word on why the death was ruled a homicide. Department representatives said detectives were conducting a death investigation and said Friday night there were no updates on the case.
CTA surveillance cameras show the man running away from five other men and jumping onto the train tracks in an attempt to escape, according to an incident report obtained in a Freedom of Information request. He was burned on much of his body, according to the report.
The man’s identity has not yet been released, but medical records indicate he was 32.
Safety on and around the CTA has been headline news for the past week. On Monday, four people sleeping aboard the Blue Line were fatally shot in what authorities called a “horrible, hideous, inexplicable” rampage. The shooting was the first multiple-victim homicide to occur on a CTA train in at least 30 years, according to available city violence data, and it was the first fatal shooting of the year on a CTA train or at a station.
Also was a Red Line passenger stabbed several times on the north side Monday afternoon and one CTA worker on duty shot in the chest Tuesday outside the Howard Street Red Line station.
The agency has increased its security spending in recent years as it has added guards and dog teams and budgeted nearly $65.2 million to buy security services by 2024. Administrators also announced a pilot of an AI-based program to alert police to weapons at stations days before the Blue Line attack, though system president Dorval Carter said technology had not been a factor in apprehending the shooting suspect.
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