5 charged with attacking, robbing CTA rider on North Side Red Line

Five people are facing charges after allegedly attacking a 42-year-old man who managed to fight off the group Friday on a CTA Red Line train on the North Side.

Shawn Gullens, 20; Latoya Thomas, 22; Martinez Owens, 24; Larone Williams, 36; and Vernon Holman, 52, are each charged with felony counts of armed robbery and aggravated battery, Chicago police said.

The attack happened around 2 a.m. after the man got on a southbound train at Addison Street, police 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.

The three robbers got off the train when it stopped at North/Clybourn, but a fourth person got on and attacked the man, police said. The man stabbed that person in the neck, and the suspect then stabbed the man in the collarbone.

The suspects then chased the man around the platform, and two of them hit the man in the head with a glass bottle and another object.

Three of the attackers were hospitalized, police said. The man who was attacked was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition.