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19th District ‘Superman’ catches armed robbery suspect
■ BY DAN CAMPANA
Being in the right place at the right time paid off for 19th Dis- trict Officer Timothy Kroski when he nabbed an armed robbery suspect in December by reaching into a stopped CTA Red Line train minutes after a North Side holdup.
Even more coincidental is that Kroski’s quick action to catch the suspected robber came the same day CPD officials high- lighted a decrease in robberies around the city in 2018. But, the most interesting part of the incident is how Kroski made the arrest, after radio reports indicated that the suspect could be headed to the Belmont station.
“The officers were on the platform at Belmont; they observed our person of interest get onto a southbound train. As the doors closed, [Kroski] literally pulled open the doors, reached in and pulled the offender out,” Commander Marc Buslik said at a press conference, describing Kroski as “Superman” for prying open the doors.
Kroski recalled the incident with modesty.
“The door was closing, there’s not much resistance, I was just able to pull it open and grab our suspect,” Kroski told reporters. “It was a very, very quick interaction.”
Buslik offered glowing praise to the foot patrol officers and their sergeant, who were working a theft mission at the time of the call that a woman had her debit card stolen at gunpoint in a robbery on North Kenmore Avenue, in the district known as the home of Wrigley Field.
Communications with district leaders helped ensure that the officers were covering all the bases in their attempt to locate and apprehend the suspect, which took all of two minutes after
Commander Mark Buslik talks with the media about 19th District Officer Timothy Kroski, third from the left, who pulled open train doors to nab an armed robbery suspect in December.
the initial radio call.
“This is just a really good example of how the officers, the in- dividual officers, are taking advantage of the kind of intelligence [we] in management are passing down to them, and how they are actually able to put it to use,” Buslik said. “Chicago Police Officers are smart and brave. I cannot speak more highly of Chi- cago Police Officers and the officers I work with today.”
Kroski didn’t think too much about the potential dangers posed by the suspect, or the fact that the incident involved a train — not long after Officers Conrad Gary and Eduardo Mar- molejo were struck and killed by a commuter train while chas- ing a suspect.
“You have to be aware of all the dangers that are associated with being up on an elevated train platform,” Kroski explained, noting that the train was stopped at the time. “I had a task at hand.”
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