9 years: Stiff sentence for man who robbed Red Line passenger (while on bail for battering a cop)

A man who battered a cop at a downtown L station in May, got out on recognizance bond, and then robbed a woman on the Red Line three weeks later has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Abdul Fadairo, age 25, pleaded guilty to charges of robbery, resisting police, and aggravated battery of a police officer to resolve the cases. He received a trio of three-year prison sentences to be served consecutively, according to state records.

Abdul-Wahab Fadairo
Abdul Fadairo | CPD

On May 19, Fadairo was arrested for battering a Chicago police officer at the State-Lake CTA station.  He was released on his own recognizance the next day.

Then, on the afternoon of June 8, he was arrested for robbing a nursing assistant as they rode a Red Line train toward downtown from the Wilson station.

Prosecutors said Fadairo ripped the woman’s purse away and ran onto a station platform somewhere between Uptown and the Loop. According to prosecutors, video from the Red Line train shows Fadairo looking at the victim, running, grabbing her purse, and exiting the train.

Later the same day, cops monitoring CTA video feeds saw a man resembling the robbery offender at the Roosevelt station. Patrol officers went there and found Fadairo offering to swipe people into the train station with the victim’s stolen Ventra card in exchange for a dollar. They arrested him.

Fadairo is scheduled to be paroled in December 2024 after receiving a 50% sentence reduction for good behavior and credit for time served.

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