CHICAGO — A Chicago man accused of pistol-whipping two CTA train passengers in separate attacks during the summer of 2021 has been handed a pair of four-year sentences. Darren Muldrow, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon before Judge Neera Walsh last Thursday, according to court records. Walsh ordered his sentences to be served concurrently.
In August 2021, Chicago police released surveillance images of a man who was wanted for attacking two Blue Line passengers with a handgun — once at the Clinton station and then at the Western station in Bucktown.
Prosecutors said Muldrow first attacked a 21-year-old man who was sitting on a bench and looking at his phone at the Clinton Blue Line station around 6:54 a.m., August 2. The man said he saw Muldrow out of the corner of his eye and heard him mumbling before Muldrow struck him in the head with an object.
The force of the blow knocked the man from the bench to the platform, a prosecutor said during Muldrow’s initial court appearance. When the victim looked up, he saw Muldrow holding something that appeared to be a handgun.
Muldrow was also accused of attacking a 39-year-old woman as she rode a Blue Line train to work two days later. The woman was playing a game on her phone when she suddenly felt several hard strikes to her head. CTA video showed Muldrow using a “gun-like object” to hit her, prosecutors alleged.
Cops said Muldrow was carrying a Stealth-brand paintball gun in his backpack when they arrested him at the Roosevelt CTA station a few days later.
Muldrow reported to Stateville Correctional Center on Tuesday. His four-year sentence will be reduced by 50% for good behavior and another 610 days for credits earned while the case was pending. His projected parole date has not been posted on the Illinois Department of Corrections website as of Thursday morning.