Woman pushed stranger onto CTA Red Line tracks, prosecutors say

A woman was so upset this week that she decided she “wanted to kill someone,” so she pushed a stranger onto CTA train tracks in the North Side Rogers Park neighborhood, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Wilma Maxey, 57, was in a bad mood while riding a Red Line train Friday morning because she couldn’t yet access money she had been expecting to receive, prosecutors said.

Maxey’s frustration turned into an attempt to kill a stranger about 6:45 a.m. when she got off the southbound train at the Morse stop at 1358 W. Morse, prosecutors said. She saw a 66-year-old woman walking on the platform, pushed her onto the tracks then sat down on a bench.

Another person on the platform went down to the tracks to help the woman, who hit her head and lost consciousness, prosecutors said. The onlooker then called police. When officers arrived, Maxey was still sitting on the bench.

The woman was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston to be treated for a fractured skull, multiple brain contusions that caused bleeding, and an injured jaw, court records show.

Maxey was charged with attempted first-degree murder and ordered held without bail. Cook County Associate Judge Sophia Atcherson also signed a healthcare order for doctors to treat Maxey, who said she receives Social Security disability checks for a mental illness.

Maxey, of the South Side Calumet Heights neighborhood, is due back in court on Friday.