Police release images of suspect in fatal Blue Line stabbing on Near West Side

Chicago police have released images of a man suspected of stabbing another man to death on a Blue Line train on the Near West Side Monday night.

Officers were called to the Clinton Station in the 400 block of South Clinton Street around 10:50 p.m. and found Nicholas Osthimer, 43, with a stab wound to the chest, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Osthimer, of Toledo, Oh. was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The suspect is 35 to 55 years old with a black and gray beard, police said.

In March, the mayor and the head of the CTA unveiled a plan to add unarmed private security guards and stepped-up police patrols to combat a spike in crime on trains and stations.

But a CTA union president countered that the transit agency should bring back conductors and re-establish its own police unit.

Anyone with information can call Area Three detectives at 312-746-8261.