A day after being shot in the leg while waiting for a Chicago Transit Authority train, Clarence Hoskins–a bullet still lodged under his skin–limped around his South Side apartment Sunday and said his experience should be a wakeup call for increased security on the CTA.
“We are paying our hard-earned money to go back and forth to work,” said Hoskins, a painter and plasterer shot on Saturday morning at a 79th Street elevated train stop. “We should have better security.”
Hoskins’ shooting and a recent spurt of attacks on the city’s transit system have caused CTA officials to fend off criticism of inadequate security. In addition to Hoskins being shot, two women have been sexually assaulted at train stops and one man was fatally stabbed on a train in the last month. Police have made arrests in the slaying and one of the assaults.
Hoskins, 43, said he was shot around 7 a.m. Saturday on his way to a job rehabbing an apartment building. As he walked down the stairs toward the platform of the Red Line’s 79th Street station at the Dan Ryan Expressway, he passed a man who came at him with a lit cigarette.
Calumet Area police said the man then ran after Hoskins, pulled out a revolver and tried to hit him with it. Although Hoskins blocked the blow, the man pulled back and fired the gun, striking Hoskins in the left thigh.
“He came out behind me and just shot me,” Hoskins said. “I never seen him before or anything.”
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The gunman apparently escaped after boarding a CTA train, Hoskins and police said.
Back at the station, two CTA employees were standing on the level above the tracks and platform when they heard the gunshot, CTA spokeswoman Maria Toscano said. The two ran down the stairs, saw Hoskins wounded, and called the CTA control center, which contacted police and an ambulance.
“I was scared. I’m still shook up. I’m nervous. It upset my family,” Hoskins said, who was treated at South Shore Hospital. “I’m just thankful that I’m living.”
Police described the gunman as about 50 years old, 5 feet 4 inches or 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds. He had a gray mustache, brown frame glasses, and a winter cap with ear flaps. He was wearing a long black leather coat.
CTA spokesman Jeff Stern said the transit system does all it can to prevent crime.
“I suppose you could have someone standing every 10 feet on every platform for the CTA,” Stern said. “But, really, how do you prevent these things?”
CTA officials said crime is on the decline as the authority has instituted a number of safety measures, including having Chicago police patrol the rails and installing cameras on some bus lines, Toscano said. The CTA is considering adding cameras to more buses and on train lines and platforms, she said.
“We have a safe system,” she said. “We have spent $25 million in security and safety measures.”
But Hoskins said it is not safe enough.
Though he has been riding the CTA for more than 20 years without incident, he said he does not believe the CTA is safe, especially on weekends when fewer people ride the train.
On Saturday morning, before Hoskins went to work, his wife, Gloria, said she asked him to take the bus instead of the train. But Hoskins declined, saying the “L” was faster.
Indeed, Hoskins said he would like to find other means to get to work but said his choices are limited.