No bail for accused CTA train bomber

ER sign Photo credit Getty Images

By Steve Miller

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Authorities say a 24-year-old West Side man is still hospitalized after setting off an explosive device on a CTA train early this week.

Cook County prosecutors say Erik Tolayo Flores on Sunday night boarded a Pink Line train with a scooter and a beer. He allegedly said passengers had until the Cicero station to exit because he was “going to blow up the train car.”

When a passenger tried to calm him down, Flores set off the device, which punctured several holes in the CTA car and caused hearing damage to passengers. Flores suffered extreme injuries to his right thumb, index and middle finger, prosecutors said.

He was ordered held without bond.

The state’s attorney’s office says Flores has a prior conviction for concealing a death. In 2018 he concealed the death of a friend for two weeks, wrapping the body in garbage bags, blankets and insulation and covering it with a mattress in his garage.