Pualski CTA bus hijacked at knifepoint in Logan Square, forced to drive 7 miles
A CTA bus was hijacked and the driver held at knifepoint and made to drive for miles off-route overnight, Chicago police said.
Police said just after 2:30 a.m. in the 2400 block of N. Pulaski a man on a #53 Pulaski route CTA bus pulled out a large hunting knife and told the bus driver not to stop driving.
Police scanner audio shows that officers were alerted that a panic alarm had been activated and there's an assault on a bus operator.
"The bus is unable to stop," the scanner audio says. "Has passengers. Pulaski bus headed southbound."
At another point the officers on scanner say, "It sounds like the bus is going rogue right now. It's the Pulaski bus, but as you can tell, it's several miles off course. The driver's sending a lot of incoherent and suspicious text messages around, and making a lot of claims, and was refusing to stop."
Police sources said before the ordeal began the driver, a 57-year-old woman, was able to get the passengers off the bus. Then she was held at knifepoint for seven miles before making it to Clark and Delaware on the Near North Side.
The armed man climbed out a bus window and made his way across Washington Square Park. Police then got a call to go to 100 W. Chestnut for a man matching the description of the person that had climbed out the bus window.
The bus driver identified the man as the same person who held her at knifepoint, and he was arrested.
No injuries were reported, and charges are pending, Chicago police said.
The CTA released a statement, writing, "The Chicago Police Department is CTA's primary law enforcement partner, and it was their swift actions that led to the immediate apprehension of the person responsible for the incident. According to preliminary information, there were no reported injuries. The CTA will be working in close coordination with local law enforcement to assist the investigation. We are committed to ensuring that felony upgrades are aggressively pursued in this case."