A bus driver in Chicago was kidnapped at knifepoint, prompting her to flee the assailant by jumping out of the vehicle’s window.
The suspect, a male, was riding the CTA bus around 2:40 a.m. when he allegedly pulled a knife and demanded that the bus keep going, according to a report from WLS-TV.
The driver of the bus, a 57-year-old woman, indeed kept driving on North Clark Street on the Near North Side.
She tripped a silent alarm, and after her supervisor located the bus, she escaped out of the window.
The bus had driven more than 6 miles after leaving the typical route.
The suspect then exited the bus and ran into Washington Park.
He was taken into custody around 3:20 a.m.
Michelle Townsend, 2nd VP of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, said the driver could watch the suspect threatening her in the mirror.
“She could see him through the mirror, what he was doing jabbing with the knife, like he was going to stab her, but only doing it in a motion like she could see through the mirror,” Townsend described.
WLS-TV reported that the suspect’s desires were unclear.
He was apparently able to circumvent the clear cage typically included in buses to protect drivers.
A subsequent report from WLS-TV identified the man as 51-year-old Lanell Fields.
He has been charged with aggravated armed kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated assault.
Fields was ordered held and was due back in court on May 20.
He has a criminal record that reaches back to 2001, per WLS-TV.
The offenses for which he has been convicted include looting, burglaries, battery, and damage to property.
The incident in Chicago is only the latest of career criminals — who often have decades of criminal activity under their belts — terrorizing the residents of major cities.
In one particularly harrowing November 2025 incident, a 26-year-old woman was set ablaze on a CTA train.
The alleged attacker, 5o-year-old Lawrence Reed, was charged with committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.
He was on electronic monitoring when he lit the unsuspecting young woman on fire, according to a report from CBS News.
A judge in Cook County had declined to hold him on an aggravated battery charge, which stemmed from him allegedly hitting a social worker.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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