CTA rider stabbed and seriously wounded while fighting off 6 robbers on North Side Red Line, 3 of the attackers also hurt

A rider on a CTA Red Line train was stabbed and seriously wounded while fighting off six robbers on the North Side Friday morning.

The man, 42, stabbed three of the robbers, police Supt. David Brown said. All six suspects were arrested and charges were pending, he said.

The attack happened around 2 a.m. after the man got on a southbound train at Addison Street, Brown said. Three people came up and tried to take his cellphone, then began attacking him. During the struggle, the victim took out a small knife and stabbed one of them in the back.

When the train stopped at North/Clybourn, the three robbers left the train as a fourth person entered and began attacking the man, Brown said. The man then stabbed that person in the neck, Brown said. That suspect then stabbed the man in the collarbone, he said.

The six suspects then began chasing the suspect around the train platform and train cars, Brown said. Two of the suspects hit him in the head with a glass bottle and other objects, he said.

The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition, police said.

Three of the six robbers were hospitalized. A 52-year-old man was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition with a stab wound to the neck; a 36-year-old man was taken to Stroger in fair condition with cuts to his arm; and a 24-year-old man was taken to Northwestern with a stab wound to the back and was stabilized.

A CTA employee not involved in the altercation was also taken to a hospital for “stress,” a CTA spokesperson said.

The CTA said in a statement it was sharing video with police, but it gave no details of the attack.