A man accused of punching a Red Line passenger who asked him to stop smoking marijuana on a train allegedly attacked and tried to rob a CTA customer service agent at the Clinton Green Line station weeks later, punching the worker in the face while trying to take his backpack, prosecutors said.
Joseph Haynes, 37, was recently arrested in Naperville in connection with a separate domestic matter and turned over to Chicago police, according to a detention filing.
The first attack occurred around 1:14 p.m. on April 2 aboard an inbound Red Line train at the North-Clybourn station, prosecutors said. Haynes was riding with the 29-year-old victim and two witnesses when he began smoking marijuana, prosecutors said. The victim confronted him about smoking on the train, and the two exchanged words before the victim returned to his seat.
But Haynes continued smoking, with surveillance video showing him exhaling smoke into the train car, according to prosecutors. They said he eventually stood up, approached the seated victim and punched him twice in the head and face, striking him in the temple and nose.
The victim pressed the emergency button to alert CTA personnel. Employees arrived, checked the train’s doors and left, prosecutors said. Haynes then exited through an emergency door into another train car. The victim later went to a hospital and learned that his nose was fractured, according to the filing.
Investigators also tracked the suspect’s movements and determined that a Ventra card registered to Haynes had been used to enter the CTA system on the day of the attack, prosecutors said. But when the victim viewed a photo lineup about a week after the assault, he identified someone else as the attacker. CPD released surveillance images of the assailant to the media that day and asked the public to help identify him.
The second attack occurred May 24 at the Clinton Green Line station, where the victim was working as a CTA customer service agent, prosecutors said. The station was closed when Haynes allegedly approached the employee booth, knocked on the window and asked to charge his phone. The agent, who was wearing a full CTA uniform, opened the booth’s sliding window and allowed him to plug in his phone.
Seconds later, Haynes reached back inside, grabbed the agent’s backpack and punched the worker in the face with the same hand, according to prosecutors. Haynes allegedly dropped the backpack, retrieved his phone and charger, then tried to take the bag again. The agent kept control of the bag and called 911.
After Haynes was recently arrested in Naperville and turned over to Chicago police, the Red Line victim participated in a second photo lineup and identified him as the attacker, prosecutors said.
Judge D’Anthony Thedford ordered Haynes detained pending trial. He is charged with attempted robbery and three counts of aggravated battery in connection with the two attacks.
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