CHICAGO — A CTA security guard’s decision to wear a bullet-resistant vest very likely saved his life over the weekend after a man shot him in the chest several times at the 79th Street Red Line station. Chicago police said the guard was still critically injured when one of the bullets hit him in the neck.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Andre Holland, 20, with attempted murder and other felonies in connection with the shooting. Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered him to be jailed as a public safety threat.
A witness told police she heard a “pop” at the train station around 4:37 p.m. Saturday. She turned around and saw Holland standing over the security guard, firing “multiple” shots into the 22-year-old’s bulletproof vest, a CPD arrest report said.
Police said one bullet struck the guard in the left side of his neck. He was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition.
According to the arrest report, a witness flagged down police who were looking for the gunman and told them they saw a man walking with a gun in his hand near 79th and Indiana. Officers went there and found Holland walking in an alley.
Holland ran from the police and jumped several fences as he tried to escape, the police said. The officers finally caught him in the 300 block of East 79th Street and recovered a .45 caliber handgun from his pants pocket, according to the report.
Holland told the police he “did it in self-defense,” an officer wrote in the report, saying that the quote may not be verbatim.
In addition to attempted murder, prosecutors charged Holland with aggravated battery by discharging a firearm, aggravated battery of a protected employee by discharging a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in a vehicle.
He had never been arrested before Saturday, the police report said.
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