Judge Orders Detention of Rayvon Savary following Chicago Shooting near Red Line Subway Grates on State Street in the Loop

CHICAGO (WLS) — The man accused of firing bullets upward through a CTA subway grate downtown Chicago earlier this week is being held, pending trial.

Before 9 a.m. on Memorial Day, police reported that there was gunfire coming from underground subway air shafts. The bullets were said to be coming up from below the street surface.

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Cook County prosecutors said in court that gunman fired because he said he wanted people to know he was armed.

In the underground tunnels of the Red Line in the heart of Chicago’s Loop, it is alleged that a 24-year-old man named Rayvon Savary entered a vent shaft next to the Red Line tracks and retrieved a handgun.

Shortly after, as two men were walking outside the Chick-fil-A, shots were fired through the grates, narrowly missing them. Smoke wafted through the air above the sidewalk at State and Lake Street while Chicago police officers responded to the scene. It was at this moment that officers claimed to have heard a voice emerging from below ground.

Investigators rushed down the stairs to the tunnel, and, as they arrived, prosecutors told a Cook County judge Wednesday afternoon, they heard what sounded like the defendant racking the slide of a gun. Immediately, prosecutors said, officers took a tactical position in the tunnel.

As some officers negotiated with who prosecutors said was an armed Savary, others shut down power to the Red Line tracks. When Savary emerged, prosecutors say police removed a 9 mm handgun from his hip with a bullet still lodged in the chamber, two spent bullets nearby and a live bullet in Savary’s breast pocket.

Prosecutors say CTA surveillance video shows how Savary scrambled south on the catwalk of the subway, across the train tracks and into the vent shafts: all areas off-limits to the public.

Now what investigators are trying to figure out is why.

Wednesday afternoon, a Cook County judg ordered Savary detained on felony weapons charges.

The CTA sent a statement to the I-Team, saying “The CTA is always looking for ways to enhance safety, especially as it relates to our rail system’s 224 miles of track and infrastructure. We are currently developing multiple pilots for various technologies to be deployed at multiple CTA locations that can help alert our 24/7 Operations Control Center to possible right of way intrusions – allowing for the prompt removal of power and requesting of emergency assistance as needed.

“The technologies being tested are intended to be used not only in subways, but also on elevated and at-grade stations. These pilots are being developed through the new CTA Innovation Studio, which was created to expedite the process of soliciting private sector proposals and pilot new, state-of-the-art solutions to help solve issues facing all aspects of our agency and our riders.”