A CTA bus rolling through East Garfield Park Friday night came under gunfire, leaving its rear window riddled with bullet holes but sparing everyone on board. Chicago police said no injuries were reported after the shooting, which happened on the 2700 block of West Madison Street.
Officers responded to the block Friday night after the bus driver reported hearing a loud noise outside the vehicle, according to ABC7 Chicago. Passengers then told the driver that the bus's back window had multiple bullet holes, confirming that the bus itself had been struck. Area Three detectives are now investigating, and police said no additional information was immediately available.
Second West Side Bus Shooting in Recent Memory
Friday's incident echoes another CTA bus shooting on West Madison Street, just over a mile away in West Garfield Park, where a Wednesday night argument escalated into gunfire in the 4200 block. In that case, the victim suffered a graze wound to his eye and was hospitalized in good condition, the station notes. No arrests had been made in that shooting, according to police.
Gunfire striking a CTA bus, even without anyone hurt, adds to a string of safety concerns that have dogged the transit system over the past year.
CTA Violence Trends Paint a Mixed Picture
Aggravated assaults and batteries on the CTA reached at least a 24-year high in 2025, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Police Department recorded 469 such attacks on the CTA last year, up from 441 in 2024, with more than half of them occurring on trains and buses themselves. Those numbers climbed further into 2026, with aggravated assaults and batteries rising 33% compared with the same period the previous year, the paper reported.
At the same time, the CTA has pointed to broader improvement, reporting an 8.5% drop in overall crime compared with the same period the year before, along with a 10% decline in rail crime and a 23% drop in violent crime on the bus system, per the same outlet. City-wide, Chicago recorded 141 shooting incidents in August 2026, nearly 20% fewer than the same month a year earlier, according to WTTW. That outlet also reported that violent crime on CTA train and bus lines fell 45% in August alone and was down 32% for the year, citing police data.
Those competing figures leave an uneven picture for riders trying to gauge safety on buses and trains even as citywide shooting numbers trend downward. Friday's shooting in East Garfield Park offers no injuries to report, but it still leaves a transit vehicle pocked with bullet holes and a Madison Street corridor on the West Side facing fresh scrutiny. Area Three detectives continue to investigate, and police have not released further details about the shooting.
