Mayor: CTA worker's fatal stabbing "breaks my heart"

CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday his heart breaks for the family of a CTA janitor stabbed to death at a Green Line station, but would not say whether the system that allowed his accused killer to be on the streets needs to be changed.

The mayor's comments during a morning appearance here are his first since the detention hearing for the suspect in the October 8 stabbing death of Julian Mobley at the Damen station near Union Park.

"That is painful not just for me but for all of Chicago," the mayor told reporters as he discussed seeing the anguish of Mobley's family. "No family should have to endure that."

Prosecutors say the suspect had jumped the turnstile at the Damen station and attacked a customer service agent when Mobley jumped in to break up the fight. They claim the suspect returned to the station later and stabbed Mobley, who later died at the hospital.

At the time of the attack, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen Burke says the suspect was on electronic monitoring following previous felony cases, and had violated terms of his curfew. She and others have renewed their calls for change in the county's embattled monitoring program.

But when asked what changes he might want to see, the mayor focused on a defense of Illinois' bail-reform law, also known as the Safe-T Act, which has led to an increase in the use of electronic monitoring by judges.

"There's no empirical evidence that that law has somehow created less accountability," the mayor said. "That particular program has been reviewed multiple ways."

Reporters pressed the mayor, who said the key to reducing violent crime hinged on continuing his effort to increase spending on job, housing and mental health initiatives, which he's described as the root causes of violence.

"It's incumbent on us to do the work that is proving to be most effective," he said. "The clearest indication of driving violence down - is making investments."