Teen Charged in CTA Red Line Attack

The teen was charged with felony robbery and aggravated battery

A 15-year-old boy spotted in CTA surveillance video was arrested Monday afternoon and charged in connection with a Red Line mob attack last month, Chicago Police said.

The teen faces charges of felony robbery and aggravated battery. He was charged as a juvenile, and his name is not being released.

Police said a man and woman were returning home on the Red Line from the theater, when the woman dropped her cell phone as the train pulled into the station at State and Lake. They were approached around 10:20 p.m. by a group of teens.

"When we stood up my wife dropped her phone on the seat and one of them swooped in," the woman's husband, who declined to be named, told NBC Chicago. "I turned around and said, 'Give me the phone back.' He jumped in, so I made a lunge toward him and they all swarmed me."

They repeatedly punched him in the face, leaving his teeth cracked and an orbital bone broken under his left eye. The group fled and the man was taken to Northwestern Memorial.

Surveillance images released last month showed several males and one female. Police said the 15-year-old was the main person responsible for the man's injuries.

In a separate incident the same day, two men were beaten and robbed by a group of 10 teens around 9:50 p.m. on the 500 block of North State Street.

No other arrests have been made in the incident.

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