The Red Line L is running again after being shut down for six hours by a Chicago police standoff with three people wanted for questioning in a firearms investigation.
The three people surrendered just before 10 p.m. after causing the Red line train to be shut down between Addison and Bryn Mawr.
The three people barricaded themselves in a building when police found a vehicle belonging to one person that was wanted for questioning.
The train was back on track just before 10:45 p.m. while officers continue to search the building where the three people had been.
Here’s the full story from the Chicago Tribune:
Three people surrendered this evening after a nearly six-hour standoff that began with the arrest of one man in a firearms investigation and shut down part of the CTA Red Line, a law-enforcement spokesman said.
The three apparently barricaded themselves in a building in the 4600 block of North Broadway about 4:15 p.m. after police and federal agents tried to question them in a firearms investigation. The standoff began after Town Hall District officers and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents working in a task force found out about “wanted individuals” being in the area, Police News Affairs said in a statement this evening.
Three people surrendering peacefully just before 10 p.m., said bureau spokesman Thomas Ahern. After taking all three into custody, authorities searched the building for weapons, Ahern said.
The surrender appeared to end the standoff, and a spokeswoman said CTA trains were about to return to normal a little before 10:45 p.m., but the building where the three had been holed up was being searched as a precaution, police said.
The first arrest took place nearly six hours earlier, when officers and agents found a vehicle in belonging to one person wanted for questioning, parked in the 4600 block of North Broadway, police said. No warrants were being served at the time the agents and officers approached the man, Ahern said.
Members of the task force, also including Illinois State Police, had been “trying to talk to a couple of individuals, just for questioning,” in the firearms-related investigation, and when they approached one of the men, he tried to run away and was apprehended, Ahern said. Police said the man was arrested after officers and agents saw him go up to the vehicle.
Since the initial arrest, police and ATF agents had been “attempting to negotiate the safe” surrender of others involved, police said in their statement.
Police asked the CTA to alter its service, because of work they were doing in the area, said CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski.
The Red Line was not operating between Addison and Berwyn avenues, and the Purple Line Express was not operating, according to the CTA‘s website. Shuttle buses were running between Belmont and Berwyn, and Red Line trains were running between 95th and Belmont and Howard and Berwyn.
As the standoff unfolded, about 50 people stood behind a line of TV news cameras on the southwest corner of Wilson Avenue and Broadway, watching for any signs of action just up the block and trading rumors about why police may have been trying to arrest the man.
A few police officers stood on the other side of the street, making sure no one walked under police tape strung across the sidewalk. CTA buses — many packed with riders forced to get off “L” trains –drove slowly through the intersection.
Several unmarked police cars were parked with their emergency lights flashing near the building where the suspect is barricaded, almost under the shadow of the “L” structure.
Jasmine Cook, who lives a few blocks from the scene, said she had been watching from the corner since about 5 p.m. She said she’s concerned about violence in the neighborhood and wanted to see the situation unfold for herself.
Cook, wearing a hooded parka and checking her smartphone for updates, said she wasn’t sure how long she would stay outside. “I want to say until he comes out, but that might be tomorrow,” she said.
- Jillian Schwartz
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