Prosecutors say a Mississippi man tore through a Red Line train, threatening passengers with a hammer, breaking windows, and finally forcing his way into the train operator’s cabin where he threatened to kill the CTA employee. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Police responded to the Sheridan Red Line station at 12:53 a.m. Monday to handle calls of a man walking between cars and threatening passengers with a hammer, according to CPD records.
The man, identified by prosecutors as Donyell Kincaid, 34, walked from the back of the train to the front, threatening people with a hammer, and breaking windows in at least three cars, prosecutors said.
When Kincaid reached the front of the train, he allegedly used a screwdriver and a hammer to pry open the train operator’s locked booth.
“I’m going to kill you,” he allegedly told the operator.
Kincaid was holding a hammer when police confronted him moments later, prosecutors said. He allegedly resisted arrest, became irate, and bit one CPD officer on the leg. Prosecutors said he spat in another cop’s face.
It will cost more than $10,000 to repair the train, prosecutors said during Kincaid’s bond hearing Tuesday.
Assistant Public Defender Suzin Farber said Kincaid has a “multitude of mental health issues” and lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
“He needs some type of medical care,” said Farber.
CPD arrest records show Kincaid has been arrested four times in Chicago since 2014, including twice in 2019.
He is charged with felony criminal damage to government property, two counts of aggravated battery of a police officer, and aggravated assault of a transit employee, a misdemeanor.
“This is a violent offense and an offense that put a lot of people in harm’s way,” Judge said Mary Marubio after hearing about the allegations. She then permitted Kincaid to return to Mississippi to await trial if he can post a $3,000 deposit on his bail.
Bus attack
In a separate incident, prosecutors charged a man with beating a CTA bus driver who refused to let him board a bus at the end of its route on the North Side.
Kemonte Warfield, 23, was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 by Judge John Lyke on charges of aggravated battery of a transit employee. Warfield can get out of jail on electronic monitoring by posting a 10% deposit.
According to police and prosecutors, the driver was sitting in the bus on the 3900 block of North Clark Street after completing his northbound route around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, September 30, when Warfield knocked on the door and tried to get on.
After the driver told Warfield that his bus was out of service and that he should board a bus sitting in front of him, Warfield called him a derogatory name and then approached the driver’s-side window, prosecutors said.
Warfield reached into the bus, pulled cigarettes from the driver’s book bag, punched the driver in his face, and tried to pull him out of the window by his uniform sweater, according to prosecutors. But the sweater came off in Warfield’s hands.
So, the driver exited the bus and tried to get it back. The men wrestled to the ground, and Warfield stood over the downed driver, punching him in the eye and kicking him in the body, prosecutors said. He poured a bottle of water on the fallen driver and walked away.
Police arrested Warfield nearby. The driver was still lying on the pavement when cops arrived. Prosecutors said Warfield admitted to hitting the driver. An ambulance took the driver to Thorek Hospital for treatment.
Warfield also has a pending misdemeanor battery case, and Judge Lyke ordered him held in lieu of $50,000 for violating the terms of bond in that matter.
He is due back in court Friday.
