CHICAGO — Prosecutors have charged a man with shooting a passenger aboard a Green Line train in the Loop on Christmas Eve. Sterling Sawyer, 43, is detained pending trial following a court hearing in which he repeatedly interrupted the proceedings, according to the judge who handled the case.
Prosecutors told Judge David Kelly that Sawyer was riding the Green Line around 9:35 p.m. when the 35-year-old victim boarded the same train car at Washington and Wabash. The men knew each other and got into an argument, officials said.
During the altercation, Sawyer allegedly pulled out a gun, shot the victim, and fled the scene. CTA surveillance cameras recorded the shooting, according to prosecutors. Both Chicago police and the felony complaints filed against Sawyer say the shooting occurred at the Clark-Lake station.
Kelly said he decided to detain Sawyer partly because he had concerns about Sawyer’s “inability and unwillingness to control his anger & his impulses.”
Sawyer is charged with aggravated battery by discharging a firearm, possession of a firearm by a repeat felon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has two previous felony convictions, one for manufacture-delivery of heroin and the other for attempted arson, according to prosecutors.
