Prosecutors say a man on parole for armed robbery and carjacking shot toward a crowd on the 79th Street Red Line platform last Sunday evening and then hid his stolen firearm in a CTA garbage can. We told you about both of his previous crimes when they occurred in 2020 and 2021.
Surveillance video showed Quitone Nash, 23, waving at a group of people to “lure them into the CTA station” around 5:30 p.m., a Chicago police report said. When they got closer, he allegedly grabbed one person and tried to throw a punch. Video showed him pulling a gun and firing one round toward the crowd, but nobody was hurt, officials said.
CPD officers on patrol saw a group of people fighting and also observed Nash pull the gun from his waistband and fire it toward the crowd, according to the report they subsequently filed.
CTA video allegedly showed Nash tossing the gun into a garbage can on the platform. According to CPD’s report, the gun was reported stolen from Matteson on Christmas Eve.
Investigators said Nash told them on body camera video that a group of Hispanic men armed with “bats, steak knives, and a taser” attacked him and hit him in the head until he blacked out. He initially denied ever having a gun. After being shown a video of himself with a gun on the platform, he allegedly explained that he grabbed the gun while the men were beating him and he “may have” put the weapon somewhere on the platform, according to a court filing.
Judge Luciano Panici, Jr., detained Nash as a safety risk. He has been returned to prison on a parole violation with a new release date in December 2027.
On the day before Thanksgiving 2020, Nash and two accomplices beat a Pink Line passenger for eight minutes near the Damen stop, prosecutors alleged. Officials said the victim was sitting alone, looking at his phone, when Nash asked to use the skateboard he had on his lap.
When the victim declined, Nash allegedly grabbed his phone from his hands and one of the accomplices took the man’s skateboard. The trio then embarked on an eight-minute attack during which they all kicked, punched, and beat the victim with his skateboard as the train rolled along its route, prosecutors said. Another passenger who was on the train car exited without trying to help.
According to prosecutors, Nash put the victim in chokeholds from behind at least twice and covered the man’s mouth with his hand to muffle his screams after the victim managed to hit the train’s emergency communication button. At one point, Nash allegedly held the man down while one of the juveniles stole his shoes.
When the train stopped, CTA workers spoke with all three alleged attackers and the victim but did not intervene as Nash and the juveniles boarded a train in the opposite direction with the victim’s backpack, prosecutors said.
CTA surveillance video showed the trio going through the man’s backpack as they rode away from the scene, according to prosecutors. The entire attack was also captured on video.
Eight days later, Nash and two accomplices allegedly carjacked a man on the Jewel-Osco parking lot, 1341 North Paulina. Officials said the carjacking victim was asleep in his car when Nash and two other men pulled him from the vehicle and began beating him.
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