A man facing a first-degree murder charge in connection with this weekend’s fatal CTA train stabbing in the Loop pulled out his phone and recorded himself during the deadly attack, prosecutors alleged in court Tuesday.
Demetrius Thurman, 40, of the Woodlawn neighborhood, was arrested Sunday in the West Loop after he was identified as the person accused of fatally stabbing a 37-year-old man Saturday on a CTA train in the 100 block of West Lake Street in the Loop, police said.
Victim discovered fatally stabbed overnight on CTA train in Loop
Before Judge Susana Ortiz at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, prosecutors said Thurman had no known relationship with the victim and that the entire incident was captured on both CTA surveillance video and Thurman’s own phone.
Before the stabbing, the victim had been sleeping on a Blue Line train car for about an hour, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara told the court. Just after 2:15 a.m., Thurman walked into the car and approached the victim from behind, holding a phone in his right hand and a knife in his left, prosecutors said.
As the victim continued to sleep, Thurman hit record on his phone, then stabbed the victim twice, once near his heart and a second time in his abdomen, according to prosecutors. The victim stood up and screamed, then backed down the aisle. As he backed away, Thurman followed as he turned his cellphone camera to film himself, prosecutors said.
While backing away, the victim eventually collapsed, and Thurman walked away toward a different car. Soon after, the car stopped at the Clark and Lake Blue Line station, where a passenger alerted security officers patrolling the platform.
As the officers entered the car with the victim, Thurman began recording again. He recorded the officers trying to determine what was happening, then turned the camera back on himself and stated, “Somebody got his a–” before leaving the CTA station, prosecutors said.
The victim, identified as Dominique Pollion, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined the victim died of multiple sharp force injuries, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which ruled the death a homicide.
Using a still photo taken from CTA surveillance footage of the incident, authorities issued a bulletin seeking help in identifying the suspect. A Chicago police officer who encountered Thurman sleeping on a Blue Line train days before the stabbing recognized him from the bulletin, prosecutors said.
When arrested Sunday, Thurman had his phone with him, which authorities obtained through a search warrant, prosecutors said. Alongside the recordings of the stabbing, authorities also found pictures of other passengers sleeping on the train on his phone.
Prosecutors said Thurman admitted to the stabbing and identified himself in multiple still images before, during and after the attack.
Thurman was ordered to pretrial detention and was scheduled to return to court on Feb. 3.
Saturday’s stabbing is one of a string of stabbings on CTA property over the past week.
The latest happened early Sunday. A 34-year-old man was on a Red Line train in the first block of West 69th Street just after 2:50 a.m. when another man stabbed him in the chest during an argument, police said. The 34-year-old was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was initially listed in serious condition.
Days prior, a woman and a man were stabbed during a fight on Jan. 5 on a CTA platform also in the first block of West 69th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
Despite the recent attacks, violent crime aboard the system has been down, mirroring dips across the city and country, according to a review of data by the Tribune. Chicago Police Department data collected through the tail end of last year showed that FBI-classified violent crimes like robberies and shooting incidents on CTA buses, trains and properties decreased by about 5% between 2024 and 2025.
Between 2022 and 2025, data showed a roughly 10% drop, but violent crime is still higher overall than it was pre-pandemic, a fact that has vexed transit and city officials for years as they have struggled to make the system safer. In 2019, city data showed there were two homicides on the system in the city limits and five nonfatal shootings.
