Police said Wednesday that the fatal shooting of a U.S. Veterans Affairs employee on a Chicago Transit Authority subway stairwell appeared to be linked to a long-held grudge by a former co-worker.
Investigators said they were questioning a 49-year-old former co-worker in connection with the slaying of Juel Marifjeren, 54, who died of multiple gunshot wounds Tuesday. The man appeared at the East Chicago District station just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, a day after police had visited his workplace and home and were unsuccessful in locating him.
The man was taken to Harrison Area detective headquarters, where police were expected to hold a lineup to determine whether witnesses to the shooting could identify the man.
Sources said the suspect, who resides on the city’s Northwest Side with his mother, was fired nearly a decade ago from the same federal government agency where Marifjeren worked as a claims adjudicator. According to those sources, the suspect was dismissed over alleged sexual harassment in the workplace and reportedly blamed Marifjeren for playing a role in that action.
Several employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs who remembered the suspect as a former fellow worker said they had seen him Tuesday near the VA office building at 536 S. Clark St.
The building is adjacent to the CTA’s Blue Line rapid transit stop near LaSalle Street, where the shooting occurred in a stairwell.
