Forest Park, Ill. – A person suspected of murder four people Aboard a Chicago-area transit train shot him at close range while he slept, officials said Tuesday.
The shooting happened just before 5:30 a.m. Monday on the Chicago-area L system, aboard a Blue Line train that was traveling from where the line ends in Forest Park, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of downtown Chicago. According to police, 30-year-old Rennie S. Davis was later arrested on another Chicago Transit Authority L line. Authorities charged Davis on Tuesday with four counts of first-degree murder.
Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins said the victims did not even see the shooter.
“They were shot execution-style while they slept,” Hoskins told The Associated Press.
Three men, including Margaret Miller, 64, and Simon Bihesi, 28, and Adrian Collins, 60, were fatally shot, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. All their addresses were listed as unknown. Police said they are still working to notify relatives of the fourth person who was killed, so his name has not yet been released.
A preliminary investigation indicates the victims were riding in two separate cars as the Blue Line train headed toward Forest Park. The Blue Line operates 24 hours a day and extends from the suburbs through downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport. It runs both above and below ground.
The suspected shooter fled. But police found and arrested Davis thanks to video footage from the train, Hoskins said.
There is no phone number listed for Davis in public records. A message sent to the email listed Tuesday was not immediately returned. Forest Park police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to messages about Davis’ legal representation. The Cook County public defender’s office said it did not represent him.
Davis is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon, according to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Fox, who spoke during a media briefing in Forest Park Tuesday evening. She called the shooting a “horrific, heinous and inexplicable act of violence” and said more details would emerge during the court hearing.
Police said in a briefing that investigators have not determined a motive.
CTA officials said they were assisting in the investigation and that the security footage “proved to be important.”
“Although this matter remains under investigation, all current information points to this being an isolated incident,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said in a statement.
Forest Park police are used to calls at busy transit stops there, Hoskins said. The CTA’s Green Line also terminates in Forest Park and runs approximately 24 hours.
Over the years, nonprofit organizations have also used transit centers to provide outreach and medical care and other services to homeless people who take shelter on trains, especially in the winter.
But the mass shooting has sparked new fears in the community of 14,000 people. Hoskins, whose position as mayor is part-time, said he could not recall reporting a homicide in Forest Park over the years.
His teenage son drives Al to school and he watched a little more closely than usual during Tuesday morning’s drop off.
“People are shaken,” he said. “We want to make them feel safe.”
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