CHICAGO — The man who randomly stabbed and seriously injured a passenger on the Red Line last week had been released on parole for attacking a CTA bus driver, prosecutors say. Trent Prusinski was out on the streets even as prosecutors asked a judge to keep him in jail this summer after he was rearrested and allegedly violated his court-ordered curfew.
The stabbing occurred aboard a northbound Red Line train as it approached Wilson on Monday, September 2 around 1:10 p.m.
Prusinksi, 23, argued with other passengers before randomly stabbing a 37-year-old man in the back at least three times, officials said. One of the stab wounds fractured the victim’s shoulder, requiring surgery.
The victim left the train and later collapsed in a toilet at the Riviera Theatre, where he works.
Surveillance video captured the attack and showed Prusinksi leaving the Wilson station. Detectives released images of the video footage to the media on Sunday morning. A U.S. Marshals task force arrested Prusinksi at his Uptown apartment Monday after a security guard identified him, according to court documents.
Arresting officers said they found a folding Husky knife in Prusinksi’s waistband when they took him into custody.
Judge Antara Rivera granted the state’s detention request, leaving Prusinksi in jail pending trial. He is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury.
Court records show he was released on parole for assaulting a CTA bus driver in the 1300 block of West Cermak last September. The driver told police he saw Prusinksi running to a bus stop and was about to stop the bus when Prusinksi fell and started banging on the bus door.
Given Prusinksi’s behavior, the driver refused to let him pass, according to a CPD report. Prusinksi went to the other side of the bus, reached through the driver’s window and ripped off part of the bus’s steering column, the report said. He allegedly threw the part from the steering column, hitting the driver in the face.
Judge Maryam Ahmad released him under a bail system on September 17, 2023, Illinois’ last day, on a recognizance bond with electronic monitoring. Judge Kenneth Wadas removed the electronic monitoring requirement three weeks later.
Prusinski has since been arrested twice for trespassing, once for allegedly entering someone’s car and again for entering an Uptown library.
Wadas denied a state request in December and again in March to revoke Prusinski’s pretrial release. In July, court officials informed Wadas that Prusinski had repeatedly violated a court-ordered curfew, records show. Wadas released Prusinski again and told him to observe the curfew.
