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| Reginald Bailey brandished a knife and lunged at a Walgreens worker, police said. | Google; CPD |
An Evergreen Park man robbed a Lakeview Walgreens store and then climbed onto the Red Line tracks, forcing the CTA to halt North Side train service for nearly an hour at noontime on Tuesday, police said.
Reginald Bailey, 50, entered the Walgreens at 953 West Irving Park Road with a suitcase around 11:45 a.m. and began to fill his luggage with items from the store’s shelves, according to prosecutors.
Police said a store employee approached Bailey near the exit, but Bailey warded him off by lunging at the worker with a knife and then running to the nearby Sheridan Red Line station.
There, Bailey left his suitcase unattended, jumped the turnstile, and fled onto the elevated tracks, according to CPD’s Office of News Affairs.
Crisis intervention officers spoke with Bailey on the tracks near Montrose, eventually getting him to agree to walk to the Wilson station where he was taken into custody. Power to the Red Line was turned off from Clark/Division to Thorndale while officers tracked and spoke with Bailey, according to the CTA.
Bailey is charged with Class X felony armed robbery; misdemeanor counts of retail theft, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless conduct; and city ordinance violations of turnstile jumping and trespassing on elevated tracks. Judge Sophia Atcherson ordered him held without bail.
At the time of the incident, Bailey was free on a recognizance bond while awaiting trial for manufacture-delivery of heroin in the Gage Park neighborhood on January 27, according to court records.
