Charges have been filed in yet another recent robbery on the CTA’s downtown subway system. It’s the latest in a string of successful police investigations as Loop train attacks staged a resurgence during April.
Police arrested Ein Julian, age 18, at the Jackson Red Line station around 2:20 p.m. Friday after they recognized him as one of the offenders who mugged a CTA passenger on a Red Line train near the same station on Thursday, according to court records.
The victim, age 25, told police three teenagers attacked him on a northbound train between the Roosevelt and Jackson stations around 12:15 a.m. on Apr. 9.
One offender pushed him into the wall of the train and took valuables from his pockets while another struck the victim and the primary offender punched the victim in the face, according to a CPD spokesperson.
Julian is charged with felony robbery. Judge Mary Marubio released him on a recognizance bond and ordered him to go on electronic monitoring.
Police arrested two juveniles Wednesday in connection with the case. The boys, ages 13 and 14, are each charged with felony robbery. No further information is available about them because they are minors.
More crimes, more arrests
CTA-related robberies and violent attacks were headline news in Chicago earlier this year, but the number of incidents dropped sharply as COVID-19 precautions kept many people at home in the second half of March.
However, robberies, batteries, and a high-profile murder have been reported as crime steadily returned to the train lines. Police report solving many of the cases:
- A 66-year-old woman was mugged by a man whom she believed to be a security guard as they rode an elevator at the Clark-Lake Blue Line station around 1:30 p.m. on Mar. 31. Police released images of the offender, but no one is in custody.
- Three people attacked and pushed a 59-year-old man onto the Red Line tracks during a robbery at the Roosevelt station around 7 a.m. on Apr. 2. A 16-year-old girl has been charged in the case, but the other two offenders remain at-large.
- Two offenders pepper-sprayed a 20-year-old woman during a robbery attempt on a Red Line train near Belmont around 10:40 p.m. April 6. No arrests have been made.
- On Apr. 7, two men pushed ex-Marine Mamadou Balde between two train cars at the Jackson station. The train dragged Balde to his death. Prosecutors on Saturday charged 18-year-old Ryan Munn of North Center with Balde’s murder. Police know the identity of the second offender and continued to look for him on Tuesday, according to a source.
- On Apr. 9, a CTA security guard was shot in the leg and a 16-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet after a gun that he kept in his jacket pocket fired during an altercation aboard a Red Line train near Belmont.  Police arrested the guard, who was not licensed to carry a concealed firearm, after he allegedly misled them about the circumstances of the situation. The 16-year-old girl was arrested for battery. She is the same girl who was charged with the previously-mentioned Apr. 2 mugging at Jackson.
- Two people battered and robbed a CTA passenger as they rode the Blue Line near Washington on Easter Sunday. Officers assigned to CPD’s Mass Transit Unit arrested Anthony Rogers in connection with the mugging five hours later, police said.
- On Monday evening, Apr. 13, a 56-year-old man told police that three teenagers battered him, took his wallet, and threatened him with scissors at the Clark-Division Red Line station. Officers arrested two boys, ages 12 and 13, at the nearby North-Clybourn station a few minutes later. The juveniles are charged with armed robbery. A 19-year-old man who was with them is charged with misdemeanor battery.
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