On September 2, 2024, a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

occurred aboard a

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of public transport, mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and List of Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, CTA bu ...

(CTA) Blue Line train as it traveled between Oak Park station and Harlem station. Four people were killed at random. The alleged shooter was taken into custody and charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Background

The rate of violent crime aboard CTA trains rose sharply at the beginning of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. While the rate of crime had since declined, the rate of crimes remained above pre-pandemic levels and gun-related robberies and attempts were at their highest level in the past decade other than 2022. The CTA had increased spending on security from $23.9 million in 2022 to $65.2 million in 2024 and by the time of the attack the CTA had run $12.4 million over budget on security spending. The security spending since 2022 included agreements with police officers from Chicago and the surrounding suburbs to patrol the system as well as contracts awarded to private security firms Monterrey and Inter-Con Security to provide unarmed guards and another one with Action K-9 Security for dog teams.

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest Law enforcement in the United States#Local, ...

's public transport division also frequently patrolled the system at no cost to the CTA. The CTA also employed around 33,000 cameras on its bus and train systems and the agency had also recently begun testing an AI-based program to detect brandished guns at train stations.

Shooting and arrest

Surveillance footage captured the suspected shooter, 30-year-old Rhanni S. Davis, boarding the Red Line at 3:50 am before transferring to a Blue Line train bound for Forest Park station at around 4:30 am. Davis was seen carrying a black

North Face North face or Northface or The North Face may refer to: * North face (Eiger), in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland * North Face (Everest), in Himalaya, usually traversed ascending Everest from the north * North face (Fairview Dome), a climbing route i ...

messenger bag and prosecutors allege they were armed with the

Glock Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer- framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military an ...

9mm This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviate ...

pistol used in the attack at this time. At around 5 am as the train passed through the Oak Park area, surveillance footage in the train captured a person walking between two adjoining train cars and fatally shooting four people execution-style. A surveillance camera then captured a passenger jumping out of the train as it reached Harlem station and fleeing before the shooter also exited the train and left the station at 5:05 am. The train continued on to Forest Park station before it was stopped and CTA custodial staff discovered three of the four victims aboard the train. At 5:27 am, the Forest Park Police Department received a call that three people had been shot on a Blue Line train at Forest Park station. Responding officers found four people with gunshot wounds, three of whom were pronounced dead at the scene and the fourth was transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where they were pronounced dead. An autopsy report confirmed that one victim died from a gunshot to the abdomen, two died from multiple wounds each, and one died from a shot to the head. Six spent shell casings were found on the train. About 15 minutes after the shooting, Davis returned to the Blue Line and boarded a train headed for The Loop. Over an hour after the discovery of the bodies, a CTA employee at the California station on the Pink Line spotted Davis and phoned the Chicago Police Department; Davis was arrested at 6:52 am.

Victims

The four shooting victims, all of whom were sleeping at the time of the attack, were seated separately. Three of the victims were located in one train car while another was seated in an adjoining car. The victims are not believed to have any connection to the shooter and appear to have been attacked at random. Three victims have been identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office: 60-year-old Adrian Collins, 28-year-old Simeon Bihesi, and 64-year-old Margaret Johnson. Naming of the fourth victim, 52-year-old Sean Jones, was delayed pending the notification of his next of kin. Collins had been shot once in the abdomen, Bihesi and Jones were shot multiple times, and Johnson was shot once in the head.

Accused

The Forest Park Police Department identified the suspect as 30-year-old Rhanni S. Davis, a resident of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Davis was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Davis allegedly wore a mask as they opened fire on their four victims and there was no provocation before they did so. Davis had a criminal background and had been charged with various offenses, including one in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, as well as for multiple weapons offenses in Chicago. At the time of the attack Davis had been training in security and home health care. Davis' charges may appear under varied names and they have been reported as using alternating gender identifiers, including culturally feminine names as well as culturally masculine names.

Aftermath and response

The Blue Line was temporarily shut down between the Forest Park and

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

stations, with shuttle buses remaining available for transportation between the two stations. The CTA president, Dorval Carter, condemned the incident and called it a "heinous and egregious act of violence" and thanked the Forest Park Police Department and Chicago Police Department for their role in apprehending the suspect. Forest Park Police deputy chief Christopher Chin condemned the attack and said that the attack appears to have been an isolated incident. Forest Park mayor Rory Hoskins requested for additional state resources to be put towards train security, saying that the "number of responses have increased exponentially". Hoskins said that if the suspect had not been apprehended sooner that he believed that there could have been more loss of life and that the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

had reached out to him and offered support through the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Illinois State Representative La Shawn Ford, who represents the area, released a statement in which he condemned the attack and also called for increased security on CTA trains. Illinois governor

JB Pritzker Jay Robert Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving since 2019 as the 43rd governor of Illinois. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain, Pritzker has started several vent ...

said that "the broader question" of why there isn't enough security being provided on the CTA needed to be addressed, while state senator

Ram Villivalam Ram Villivalam is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate for the 8th district. The 8th Senate District consists of the Forest Glen, North Park and West Ridge neighborhoods in the City of Chicago and the nearby suburbs of Park Ridge, Mort ...

said that it would be "impossible" to vote for funding for the system "unless people are safe". The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless advocates said that the attack emphasized the need for more resources and that those experiencing homelessness are vulnerable to violence.

References