Chilling Details Emerge About 'Execution Style' Blue Line Killings

FOREST PARK, IL — Chilling details emerged Wednesday about the final moments of four Blue Line passengers who were fatally shot early Labor Day morning, according to authorities, who said three of the victims were asleep at the time of the attack.

Rhanni Davis, 30, of Chicago, made his first court appearance Wednesday in Maywood after he was charged Tuesday with four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of 60-year-old Adrian Collins, 28-year-old Simeon Bihesi, 64-year-old Margaret Johnson and a 52-year-old man.

Davis was ordered detained and will remain in custody, with his next court date set for Sept. 27, authorities said.

CTA footage captured Davis boarding the Red Line around 3:50 a.m. Monday before transferring to a Blue Line train about 4:30 a.m. bound for Forest Park, according to charging documents. He was recorded around 5 a.m. in a car on the Blue Line train, wearing a mask, authorities said, adding there were three other passengers on board, all of whom were sleeping.

Davis walked up to the 52-year-old man in the last row and shot him in the head and back, then turned to Bihesi, in a nearby row, and shot him in the face and arm or hand, according to charging documents. Davis walked to the middle of the car where Johnson was sitting and shot her once from behind with the gun to her head, authorities said.

While the train was moving, Davis went to the next car, where Collins was sitting, facing the door from which Davis entered, according to charging documents, which said Davis approached Collins, who raised his hands in defense before Davis shot him in the torso.

Judge Elizabeth Ciaccia-Lezza characterized the killings as “execution style,” Block Club Chicago reported Wednesday.

Train personnel alerted to the shooting found Collins alive but he later died at Loyola University Medical Center, authorities said, adding the other three victims were dead when they were discovered. The shooting was initially reported out of the Forest Park station.

Davis, meanwhile, got off the train at the Harlem stop, exited the station, then returned about 15 minutes later and boarded a train bound for the Loop, according to charging documents.

He was identified by a CTA employee after workers were given a description of the shooter and Chicago police found him at the Pink Line California station and took him into custody, authorities said.

Ciaccia-Lezza denied Davis’s request for an electronic monitoring release before trial, according to Block Club Chicago, which reported that Davis previously served one day in jail for a disorderly conduct case in 2020 and had two other cases in which charges were dropped.

Davis graduated from Chicago Public Schools and went on to work in security, home health care and, more recently, at Taco Bell, the outlet reported, adding Davis had the necessary documentation to carry a gun.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said at a news conference Tuesday regarding the lack of a clear motive that “the question of why may never be answered.”

Police have said they do not know if the victims were unhoused, but a friend of Bihesi’s told Block Club Chicago that Bihesi, a former Marine, and had been experiencing homelessness, often sleeping on trains because of safety concerns with shelters.