The family of a man who was fatally stabbed after he fell asleep while riding a Blue Line train in the Loop has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the CTA.
“The death of Dominique Pollion while on board a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train could have and should have been preventable,” attorneys for the family of Dominique Pollion said Tuesday. “The CTA was aware of a significant rise in passenger attacks, including the burning of a female passenger by a stranger just three months prior, and a 150% increase in rider attacks in the last five years.”
At about 2:17 a.m. on January 10, Pollion, 37, was found unresponsive on a train car at the Clark-Lake station. Prosecutors say Pollion had been sleeping with his head resting against the window when a stranger, Demetrius Thurman, 21, approached him from behind while recording on his phone.
CTA surveillance footage and Thurman’s phone video show Thurman stabbing Pollion once in the chest near his heart and a second time in his abdomen, according to prosecutors. After the attack, Thurman allegedly turned the phone camera toward himself, directly capturing his own face in the video.
Pollion woke up screaming and backed away down the aisle before collapsing, officials said.
Attorneys for Pollion’s family blame “insufficient” security for his death, pointing to the federal government’s rejection of a CTA security plan in December.
“The CTA was keenly aware of security concerns and failed to take action to protect patrons in January 2026,” the family’s law firm, Romanucci & Blandin, said. “Officials were aware that its passengers faced a foreseeable and escalating risk of violent criminal attack on their trains.”
After the attack, Thurman walked to a different train car but returned to record the scene again after the train stopped at the Clark-Lake station. Prosecutors say he filmed Pollion lying in the aisle as security officers responded, then turned the camera back on himself and stated “somebody got his a**” before leaving the area.
Pollion was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from the two stab wounds.
Chicago police detectives fed CTA video images through a Secretary of State facial recognition database to identify Thurman, officials said. CPD arrested him within days. A search warrant executed on Thurman’s cellphone allegedly revealed the recordings he made of himself stabbing Pollion and filming afterward, as well as photos of other passengers sleeping on the train.
The lawyers additionally claim that the CTA security personnel on duty at Clark-Lake the night of the attack “could not even immediately determine that Dominique had been stabbed. Meanwhile, Thurman calmly recorded the scene from outside the train, made a verbal statement, and walked out of the station without being stopped.”
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