Another Violent Attack Exposes the Folly of Chicago’s ‘Gun-Free’ Transit System

Devon Jones is no stranger to the criminal justice system in Illinois. Though he’s only 25-year-old, he’s managed to rack up an impressive amount of charges, convictions, and guilty pleas including unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated battery of a peace officer. Because of his prior felony conviction, when Jones was arrested last August for disturbing the peace at a Chicago restaurant and was found to have a Taser in his possession, prosecutors asked to have him detained without bond until his trial. 

The Cook County judge overseeing his case refused that request and instead placed Jones on electronic monitoring. Jones allegedly violated the terms of his release a half-dozen times in the following four weeks, but Judge Charles Burns still refused to have him detained behind bars. 

When Jones failed to show up for his court hearing in September 2025, Burns issued a warrant for his arrest; one that was still active in October, when Jones attacked a pregnant woman in a pedestrian walkway connecting two Chicago Transit Authority train stations. 

The woman later told police she felt Jones strike her buttocks with an open hand before grabbing her. Wearing a mask, he allegedly tried to take her purse, and the two struggled over it. The woman fell to the ground multiple times during the struggle. Eventually, the purse strap broke, spilling its contents, including an iPad, onto the tunnel floor.

Jones allegedly grabbed the iPad and fled, exiting at street level on Jackson Boulevard before getting back on his bicycle and riding away. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment of scratches and bruising.

CWB Chicago reports that Jones has now been sentenced for that crime after taking a plea deal with prosecutors. Jones was sentenced to 10 years, but with Illinois’ policy of cutting a day off a sentence for every day served, that decade-long sentence will be closer to five years. As part of the deal, Cook County prosecutors also dropped the weapons charge that led Jones to be placed on electronic monitoring last year. 

Why wasn’t Jones picked up for violating his release in the days after a warrant was issued for his arrest? If he was still on electronic monitoring, it should have been easy enough to find him. Of course, we can also ask why he was allowed to remain on electronic monitoring after repeatedly violating the terms of his release. 

And then there’s the issue of Chicago’s “gun-free” public transit system. I’ve lost track of how many incidents I’ve written about where the “gun-free” status of the CTA was ignored by violent predators, though in this case, Jones wasn’t accused of having a weapon on him when he attacked his pregnant victim. Still, Illinois law and CTA policy prohibited her from carrying a firearm for self-defense if she wanted to, and a peaceable gun owner with a valid carry license is going to be far less likely to violate that prohibition than someone who’s already decided to commit a violent felony. 

Just last week, a CTA janitor was stabbed to death at the Damen Green Line station, allegedly by another repeat offender who was wearing an ankle monitor despite multiple violations of his probation. Prosecutors had reportedly tried at least four times to have his probation revoked, to no avail. Like Jones, the accused killer was supposed to be under the watchful eye of the Cook County criminal justice system. And like Jones, he was apparently free to prey on innocent people instead.

Chicago officials can’t seem to keep track of dangerous repeat offenders even when they’re wearing GPS monitors, but they insist that law-abiding citizens must be disarmed when they step onto a CTA train or bus. The people who obey the law are stripped of a fundamental right to protect themselves, while those who repeatedly violate the law are given chance after chance to victimize others. Chicago’s gun-free transit system isn’t keeping violent criminals off the CTA. It’s just making sure their potential victims can’t legally carry the most effective means of fighting back.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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