ROSELAND — Police are looking for a man and a woman who robbed and attacked an older man Sunday on the Red Line — the latest in a string of anti-Asian hate attacks nationwide, an organizer said.
About 2:40 a.m., the man was riding the train near the 95th/Dan Ryan stop, 15 W. 95th St., when two people went up to him and took a bottle and money from him, police said. When the victim tried to get his things back, the woman hit him in the head with the bottle, police said.
A graphic video of the bloody attack has been shared on social media.
Police are looking for the attackers. The man and women were each 25-30 years old, Black and 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-9, police said. The man wore a multi-colored shirt, purple hooded sweatshirt and black pants with a gray stripe on the leg, and the woman wore a white jacket with a multi-colored hood and ripped black jeans.
Anyone with information can call detectives at 312-745-4443.
Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of Coalition For A Better Chinese American Community, said the attack is part of a rise of violence against older Asian people since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizations, including the coalition, are providing personal safety alarms to older Asian Chicagoans, Chan McKibben said. Many older Asian residents, especially those who take public transit and walk, have voiced fears about violence, Chan McKibben said.
Chan McKibben said the video is “absolutely horrific” and “shows violence that was completely unprovoked.”
“It’s a rude reminder that as much as we’ve been talking about anti-Asian hate, trying to come up with interventions over the past couple of years, it’s still there,” Chan McKibben said. “It’s concerning that it happened and even more horrible that nobody tried to help him.”
CTA spokesperson Maddie Kilgannon said the agency has bolstered its security by adding private security guards, relaunching a K-9 unit and installing new video monitors at station booths.
The CTA has shared camera footage with police and is “working very closely” with them to monitor the incident, Kilgannon said.
“This kind of behavior is absolutely reprehensible and should not happen to any CTA customer,” Kilgannon said in the statement. “While there is broad, strategic coverage by Chicago police officers and CTA security guards, it is impossible to have officers on every train and bus, and at every facility, all hours of the day.”
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