Rhanni Davis, Chicago man shoots & kills 4 homeless people sleeping on Blue Line at Forest Park as authorities struggle to understand how and why the ‘random’ victims were targeted.
Illinois authorities have surmised a 30 year old man who went on a shooting rampage on Chicago’s Blue Line on Monday, shot and killed his victims, ‘execution style’ as they slept during the early morning hours, with the victims most likely not even aware that they were being targeted.
Rhanni S. Davis, 30, who was later captured after fleeing the Forest Park station on Labor Day Monday was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, authorities said.
In all the gunman fired six shots on two train cars, with the victims identified as; Margaret Miller, 64, along with three men, including Simeon Bihesi, 28, and Adrian Collins, 60, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. All of their addresses were listed as unknown.
‘Executed as they slept’
Police said they were still working to notify relatives of the fourth person killed, whose name had yet been released.
Surveillance video allegedly showed Davis walking through a train car and shooting three of the victims seated separately, police said. The fourth victim was in a different car.
Davis was scheduled to appear in court at noon on Wednesday, according to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who called the shootings against all homeless victims as ‘horrific, heinous and inexplicable act of violence’.
In new details shared by police yesterday, it was revealed that the four victims were likely asleep in different parts of the train and that there had been no confrontations prior to the mass shooting at the Forest Park CTA Blue Station in Forest Park, IL on Monday.
Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins said the victims likely didn’t even see the shooter.
‘They were shot execution-style as they slept,’ the official said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, disparaged lack of efforts to bring about gun control legislation and the ongoing malaise to bring a solution to Chicago’s ongoing homeless situation, which has jumped threefold in recent times.
“We have new information regarding the deadly shooting on a CTA Blue Line train early Monday morning”
Mayor Photo Op blames Republicans: pic.twitter.com/BcZStmE14P
— Douglas Ritz (@douglasritz) September 3, 2024
Why were homeless targeted by gunman?
Preliminary investigation shows the victims were on two different cars as the Blue Line train was headed toward Forest Park, police said.
Officers responded to the scene after a 911 call on Monday morning and cleared the train of passengers before getting on, where they discovered the four victims with gunshot wounds.
Three of them were pronounced dead at the scene and a fourth died while at hospital.
The suspected shooter fled the scene but police found and arrested Davis thanks to video footage from the train, Hoskins said.
Public records did not have a listed phone number for Davis. It remained unclear if the man had retained legal representation.
Officials also said the incident appears to be isolated and random in nature. Authorities said there was no apparent motive for the shooting and what led to the homeless individuals being ‘specifically’ targeted by the gunman.
Authorities sought to calm ‘agitated’ commuters, saying that there was no further threat to the public.
Over the years, nonprofit organizations have also used the transportation hubs for outreach and providing medical care and other services to homeless people who seek refuge aboard the trains, particularly in winter.
It wasn’t until Monday that a homicide had been reported in Forest Park in years.
