Chicago train shooting: Victims likely didn’t see shooter

FOREST PARK, Ill. — A man suspected of killing four people on a Chicago-area train shot them at close range while they slept, officials said Tuesday.

The shooting happened just before 5:30 a.m. Monday aboard Chicago’s L system, a Blue Line train traveling near where the line ends in Forest Park, a suburb about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of downtown Chicago. Rhanni S. Davis, 30, was arrested later on another Chicago Transit Authority L line, police said. Authorities charged Davis Tuesday with four counts of first-degree murder.

Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins said the victims likely didn’t even see the shooter.

“They were shot execution-style while they were sleeping,” Hoskins told The Associated Press.

Margaret Miller, 64, and three men, including Simeon Bihesi, 28, and Adrian Collins, 60, were fatally shot, the Cook County coroner’s office said. All of their addresses were listed as unknown. Police said they were still in the process of notifying relatives of the fourth person who died, so his name has not yet been released.

Preliminary investigation shows the victims were in two different cars as the Blue Line train headed toward Forest Park, police said. The Blue Line operates 24 hours a day, running from that suburb through downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport. It runs both underground and above ground.

The suspected shooter fled. But police found and arrested Davis thanks to video footage from the train, Hoskins said.

Public records did not list a phone number for Davis. A message sent Tuesday to a listed email address was not immediately returned. Forest Park police and the Cook County district 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 at noon Wednesday, Cook County District Attorney Kim Foxx said at a news conference in Forest Park Tuesday night. She called the shooting a “horrific, horrific, inexplicable act of violence” and said more details would emerge during the hearing.

Police said during the press conference that investigators have not yet been able to determine a motive.

CTA officials said they were assisting in the investigation and that the security footage “proved to be vital.”

“While this matter remains under investigation, all current information indicates that this is an isolated incident,” CTA Chairman Dorval Carter Jr. said in a statement.

Forest Park police are used to responding to calls to the busy transit stops there, Hoskins said. The CTA’s Green Line also terminates in Forest Park and runs nearly 24 hours a day.

Over the years, nonprofit organizations have also used the transportation hubs to provide aid, medical care and other services to homeless people who seek shelter on the trains, especially in the winter.

But the mass shooting in the community of 14,000 has stoked new fears. Hoskins, whose mayoral job is part-time, said he couldn’t recall a homicide being reported in Forest Park in years.

His teenage son takes L to school and when he dropped him off on Tuesday morning, he was a little more watchful than usual.

“People are shocked,” he said. “We want them to feel safe.”