CHICAGO — Prosecutors have charged a man with attacking a CTA passenger with a metal pipe as they rode the Red Line near Addison on Monday. Perdido Cook, 44, of Harvey, still had the pipe as well as two railroad spikes when Chicago police officers arrested him on the train minutes later, officials said.
The 50-year-old victim boarded a northbound train at Belmont, grabbed a seat, and closed his eyes around 12:40 p.m. on February 10, prosecutors said in a detention petition. Cook allegedly walked up to the man and struck him in the face with a two-foot metal pipe, striking him beneath the right eye. Personnel at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center closed the wound, described by prosecutors as a “deep laceration,” with stitches.
Other passengers called 911 and police found Cook lying across the train seats when they arrived at the Addison station. CPD’s arrest report said Cook had two railroad spikes in his jacket and the metal pipe.
Judge Anthony Calabrese detained Cook on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery of a transit passenger.
Calabrese noted in his detention order that Cook received a three-year prison sentence in 2022 for aggravated battery of a peace officer. A River Forest Police Department crime blotter (pdf) indicates Cook was arrested in their town on February 2; however, no charges related to that arrest appeared in court records as of Sunday afternoon.
