Metra Station Fight Leads to Battery Charge

A 53-year-old Oak Lawn man was charged with battery following a skirmish at the Metra Station at 5120 Museum Drive.

Oak Lawn police arrested Lawrence R. Drummond in a bank parking lot on the 5100 block of West 95th Street, after determining he had been the aggressor in an altercation with a fellow commuter, reports said.

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Officers showed up at the Metra Station around 4:43 a.m. Oct. 5 where they found a 58-year-old man with scrapes on his hand. Police said that the man positively identified Drummond before he was brought to Advocate Christ Medical Center for medical treatment.

The man told police Drummond was walking toward the train platform when Drummond started kicking and punching him, reports said. During the ensuing struggle, the man removed the laptop case he was carrying over his shoulder and placed it on the ground.

Police said the man put up his hands to try and stop the alleged attack. He was able to get out his cell phone and call 911, when police said Drummond fell on to the train tracks.

After he picked himself up, Drummond allegedly grabbed the man’s laptop case and threw it over the train tracks, reports said. The case contained the man’s work-issued laptop and some papers.

Police said that Drummond had threatened the man on the train the day before in front of three witnesses. One of those witnesses told police that Drummond walked up to the man on the train and allegedly said: “I’m going to knock you out.”

Witnesses corroborated the man’s account. According to the report, an employee of a doughnut shop saw the man sitting on a bench, when Drummond walked up and began yelling at him.

The employee heard a loud noise and when he went outside to look, he saw Drummond allegedly punching the man’s face. The employee watched Drummond fall on to the tracks and grab the man’s laptop case, police said.

Police said Drummond told them he threw the man’s computer case out of anger because he was being attacked. Drummond also denied threatening the man on the train the day before.

Drummond is charged with one count of battery and was awaiting a bond hearing.

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