A man on bail for aggravated battery of a CTA employee is now charged with battering and robbing a 62-year-old blind man at the Roosevelt Red Line station Monday morning.
Police were called the station at 7:21 a.m. after a witness saw the victim being thrown to the ground by a man who dragged him through the station’s pedestrian tunnel while wrestling away his bag. CTA workers called police as the witness followed the offender to a CTA bus until police arrived and arrested the suspect.
Denzel Mukes, 29, is charged with the robbery. Police said he had the victim’s bag when they found him on the bus.
Prosecutors say CTA video shows Mukes walking up behind the victim as the man walked with a cane inside the station. He allegedly reached into the man’s pockets, but the victim realized what was happening, and the two began to struggle until the victim fell to the floor.
Mukes then pulled on the victim’s tote bag, dragging him across the floor until Mukes gained control of the bag, prosecutors said. Police said Mukes admitted to the crime.
On May 18, a Cook County Judge Mary Marubio released Mukes on his own recognizance after he was accused of battering a CTA bus driver on the Far South Side. Judge Charles Beach on Tuesday ordered Mukes held without bail for violating the terms of that release.
Beach set bail in the new case at $150,000.