The Metra Police Department has arrested a 51-year-old Riverdale man and charged him with displaying a knife and threatening to harm a Metra Electric Line conductor and a Metra passenger on Oct. 19.
Tony R. Hale of Riverdale was charged with aggravated assault to a transit employee in connection with the incident.
At about 1 p.m. on Oct. 19, as Metra Electric Train No. 131 was arriving at the Riverdale Station, the offender became involved in an argument with a conductor and another passenger. When the train stopped at the station, at 137th and Illinois in Riverdale, the offender got off the train, removed a steak knife from his backpack and threatened to harm the conductor and passenger.
The offender fled before police arrived, but Metra Police detectives were able to identify him and distributed a bulletin seeking his arrest. The conductor of another Metra Electric train, No. 758, spotted the suspect on Oct. 22 and summoned Metra Police, who arrested him without incident at about 8 a.m.
“We take threats to our conductors and to our riders extremely seriously and we will vigorously investigate all incidents and seek to prosecute all suspects to the fullest extent of the law,” said Metra Police Chief Joseph Perez.
Hale is scheduled to appear in the Cook County Court Markham branch on Dec. 14.
