CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago Police officer is being recognized for a daring arrest aboard a CTA L train last month.
It began with reports of an armed robbery in the Lakeview neighborhood the afternoon of Dec. 27. A man had approached a 27-year-old woman, displayed a gun and demanded her wallet and cell phone.
The suspect then ran towards the Belmont Red Line station, and so did Officer Timothy Kroski.
"As the doors began to close, he spotted a man wearing a red and black sweatshirt inside the car," said Arthur Hannus, Executive Board President of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. "Officer Kroski reached into the car, forcing open the doors and grabbed the robbery offender, bringing him back onto the train platform."
The foundation has named Kroski their January Officer of the Month. At his award reception Tuesday morning, he told reporters he was simply in the right place at the right time.
"Everything happened so quickly that the offender still had the proceeds of the robbery in his hands at the time that he was taken off that train car," Kroski said. "Obviously, you have to take in mind the danger behind any situation that you get into, but you also have to have trust in your tactics."
Chicago Police said the 18-year-old suspect's firearm was a replica, and he had been arrested just days earlier for carrying a gun on a CTA train.