Weekend incidents rattle Red Line riders
Passenger struck, killed at Central
Two violent incidents disrupted T service along the Red Line, which serves MIT, over the long weekend. A passenger was stabbed on a Cambridge-bound train on Monday, and on Sunday, a Red Line train struck and killed a man at the Central Square station.
The Boston Globe reported on Sunday that a man was killed by a Red Line train inside the Central Square station shortly before 5:25 p.m. Train service was halted for over two hours, during which time buses provided service between the Harvard and Park Street stations. The nature of the death had not been determined as of yesterday evening.
Yesterday, the Globe also reported that a male teenager was stabbed on a Red Line train bound for Cambridge. Police and emergency medical personnel responded to a stabbing report at Park Street station at about 5:15 p.m. A Boston police spokesman told the Globe that the victim was about 18 years old and that he was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. His injuries are reportedly not life-threatening.
Last November, Omar Khalidi, a librarian at MIT, was killed when he was hit by a Red Line train at the Kendall Square station. Khalidi’s wife told The Times of India last year that Khalidi had been suffering from diabetes and insomnia, and that he fainted and fell in front of the train. Khalidi was born and raised in Hyderabad, India.
Also over the weekend, a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train struck and killed a man in Chicago’s South Side, reported the Chicago Sun-Times. The man, 32-year old Theus Beal, was reportedly a sexual assault suspect who had announced he was going to commit suicide some time prior to jumping in front of the train.