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Judge denies bail for man with history of robbery and gun arrests charged with shooting on Blue Line train at UIC-Halsted stop

A man with an arrest record going back 15 years has been charged with shooting a passenger on the Blue Line as it pulled into the UIC-Halsted stop, then grabbing a backpack off him as the doors opened, according to Chicago police.

Patrick Waldon, 31 and a parolee, was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, armed robbery and being an armed habitual criminal. He was arrested hours after police released photos from surveillance cameras around the station on the Near West Side.

During his bond hearing on Thursday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, a judge held him without bond.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi credited the photos with helping in the arrest. “You’re on camera and you will be caught,” he tweeted.

The victim, a 30-year-old man from the Near North Side, was shot in the lower right back and was taken to nearby Stroger Hospital in serious condition. He underwent surgery but his condition has since stabilized.

Witnesses told police that Waldon got on the Blue Line train at the Jackson station in the Loop about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, prosecutors said.

The rider, who had transferred from the Red Line to Blue Line at Jackson, noticed Waldon and another person watching him on the platform. Both boarded the same car as the victim. Waldon sat down near him.

As the train headed west, Waldon began talking to the man and demanding his backpack, but the victim ignored him and stood up at the car’s door as the train approached the UIC-Halsted stop.

Waldon then got behind him, demanded the backpack again and pressed the gun into the man’s back before shooting him.

“The offender approached and stood directly behind the victim, pulled out a silver revolver and shot the victim one time in the back at close range,” police said in a report. “The victim fell to the ground and, after the car doors opened, the offender took the victim’s backpack and fled.”

Witness behind Waldon saw the incident and it was also captured on CTA surveillance video.

The gunman may have had an accomplice, police said, because another man was seen talking to him after the shooting and also ran from the platform.

At a Thursday morning news conference at the department’s South Side headquarters, Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said CTA surveillance video shows Waldon on the CTA platform with the victim. They both get on the train, and Waldon sat right next to the victim, he said.

The video shows Waldon display a handgun, and the two struggle with the victim’s backpack, Deenihan said. Waldon ran off the train after the shooting.

Investigators used surveillance cameras to track the suspect from the CTA station to a nearby Target, where he threw away some items from the victim’s backpack, Deenihan said.

Detectives then received several tips about his identity when they pushed out surveillance images, he said.

A witness from the train identified Waldon from a photo array, he said.

“There were people on the train that came to this victim’s aid and stayed with him until emergency personnel came,” Deenihan said, adding that they also spoke with officers afterward. “Those people did a remarkable job. Without their help, the case is not solved either.”

Waldon was taken into custody later in the day during a traffic stop in the 3000 block of West Harrison Street, about 21/2 miles from the shooting. Authorities said he has been arrested at least 14 times by Chicago police and has four felony convictions on his record.

Waldon has “preyed on the people of Chicago for years,” interim Chicago Police Superintendent Charlie Beck said at the news conference.

One of Waldon’s first arrests was for battery when he was 17. The charge was later stricken but it was not known why. He also was arrested in 2009 and 2010 on a range of charges, including aggravated battery, aggravated use of a weapon and unlawful restraint, according to court records. But those charges were dropped and Waldon pleaded guilty in one case to just robbery and, in the other, one court of aggravated use of a weapon.

In 2013, Waldon was hit with 17 charges after an arrest in January. They ranged from armed home invasion to residential burglary, aggravated unlawful restraint and kidnapping. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery with no weapon, and the other charges were dropped, according to court records. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and was paroled in 2018.

Beck said he is meeting with CTA officials on Friday to discuss increasing police deployment on public transportation. “Obviously when crime occurs on public transportation, it affects everybody,” he said. “This is a system that affects all of Chicago.”

The shooting happened one day after a man was stabbed and injured Tuesday afternoon on the platform at the Red Line’s Jackson stop. Barbara Johnson, 38, was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery in a public place, both felonies. She is also charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property.

Beck said the stabbing likely involved mental illness.

Serious crime aboard CTA trains, on the rise since 2015, has flared in recent months, particularly the Red and Brown lines. The violence, which includes robberies of smartphones or random attacks on unsuspecting riders, has persisted despite the installation of 1,000 high-definition surveillance cameras at CTA stations last year.