Man Charged with Fatally Stabbing Woman on Red Line Train

Arthur S. Jones, 29, of Chicago, has been charged with first-degree murder

A man has been charged with murder for stabbing a woman to death on a CTA Red Line train Thursday on Chicago's South Side.

Arthur S. Jones, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of 25-year-old Jessica Hampton, according to Chicago Police records and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Hampton, of the 6600 block of South Laflin in West Englewood, was riding a southbound Red Line train as it approached 47th Street just after 12:30 p.m. when police say the man, believed at the time to be her boyfriend, pulled out a knife and began stabbing her.

Police believe the couple had been arguing about a child before the stabbing.

One passenger, Andrea Patterson, told NBC 5 she was seated near the two when the argument broke out on the train.

“He asked the young lady a question, she said no and he got up and started stabbing her,” Patterson said. “She fell to the floor and then he slit her neck.”

A Facebook page for Hampton shows she listed herself as engaged and worked in cosmetology.

Panicked passengers recall watching her murder frozen in horror.

“A couple of gentlemen were trying to help her but he still had a knife in his hand so nobody wanted to run up,” she said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:15 p.m., the medical examiner’s office said. 

Passengers on the train called 911 to report the stabbing, and an officer was already near the 47th Street Red Line stop as the train pulled up, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday.

The suspect stepped off the train, saw the officer and surrendered, Guglielmi said.

CPD records indicate that Jones was arrested at 12:38 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of West 47th.

Investigators are reviewing CTA surveillance camera video of the altercation.

“This is domestic in nature,” First Deputy Supt. John Escalante said at a brief news conference on the slaying Thursday. “We’re sure of that.”

Jones, who lives in the 5300 block of South Carpenter, is also charged with aggravated battery of a police officer and attempting to disarm a police officer or correctional institution employee, according to police records.

Court information for him was not immediately available Saturday afternoon.

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