Crime & Law
Family of Man Fatally Stabbed on Blue Line Train Suing CTA
File photo of a CTA train. (Richard Wellenberger / iStock)
The family of a man who was fatally stabbed on a Blue Line train early this year is suing the Chicago Transit Authority and a pair of private security firms, claiming the agencies failed to protect riders amid an uptick in violence.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family of Dominique Pollion, a 37-year-old man who was stabbed to death while he was sleeping onboard a Blue Line train on Jan. 10. It alleges the CTA had “actual knowledge” that its passengers faced a “foreseeable and escalating risk of violent criminal attack” on its trains.
That lawsuit, filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court by the law firm of Romanucci & Blandin, seeks to “secure accountability for this needless loss of life.” They argued the CTA was keenly aware of security concerns and failed to take action to protect patrons ahead of Pollion’s death.
“Whatever the CTA was telling the public about a surge in security in response to violence on the CTA lines, our client’s grandson was left alone overnight in the hands of the same inadequate system that federal officials had just condemned,” attorney Michael Cerasa said during a press conference Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the CTA said Tuesday it is unable to comment on pending litigation.
According to the lawsuit, Pollion had been asleep onboard a Blue Line train for about an hour when he was approached at around 2:15 a.m. by 40-year-old Demetrius Thurman, who had no connections to Pollion.
Thurman was holding a phone in one hand and a large knife with a bright orange handle in the other, the lawsuit states, and without provocation or any verbal interaction, Thurman allegedly walked up behind Pollion and began recording video on his phone as he stabbed Pollion once in the chest and again in the abdomen.
When the train made its next stop at the Clark/Lake station, another passenger alerted private security guards.
While security officers were attending to Pollion inside the train car, Thurman allegedly stood outside the train and recorded himself on his phone, stating, ‘Somebody got his a--,” before leaving the CTA station without being stopped or detained, according to the complaint.
“He had a heart for people,” Pollion’s grandmother Shirley Pollion-Hines said of her grandson Tuesday. “He cared for people … he was a compassionate person.”
Thurman has since been arrested and was charged with first-degree murder.
Pollion’s killing came two months after a woman was set on fire in a brazen arson attack onboard a Blue Line train. Attorneys for Pollion’s family also claimed there was a 150% increase in rider attacks over the last five years, and pointed to the federal government’s rejection of the CTA’s security plan in December 2025.
The lawsuit accuses the CTA and the security firms with negligence, willful and wanton misconduct and wrongful death. Pollion’s family is seeking a jury trial.
“Even when my heart is hurting, God is still God, and God would have forgiven Dominique’s killer and our family is trying to do that,” Pollion-Hines said. “But what we cannot forgive is how CTA has abandoned people like Dominique who count on public transportation to live their lives.”
