Northwestern PhD Gets 3 Years For Shoving Stranger Onto Tracks

CHICAGO — A Northwestern University Ph.D. student admitted he shoved a stranger onto subway tracks last summer in exchange for a sentence of three years in prison. Chad Estep, 34, formerly of Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery Wednesday and was taken into custody. Prosecutors dropped the charge of attempted first-degree murder, a second count of aggravated battery and one count of unlawful restraint. He had also been charged with trespassing for entering the CTA station without paying.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2017, Estep approached a 46-year-old man waiting to board a train on his way home from a Chicago Cubs game at the Washington Station at 19 N. Dearborn St. With a running start, according to the survivor of the attack, Estep shoved the man in the back, knocking him onto the tracks within inches of the electrified third rail.

Estep stopped the man from climbing back up onto the platform until witnesses intervened. He then fled on foot, according to police. Police and prosecutors did not lay out any motive for the attack, which they described as isolated. Estep said nothing during the attack, the survivor told the Tribune, describing him as having an "empty, glossy look in his eye." The man was able to climb back on the platform moments before a train arrived.

Estep received a Ph.D. in neuroscience in March 2017, according to Northwestern. According to an online resume, he graduated Michigan State University in 2006 with a major in zoology. At a bond hearing, his lawyer said Estep he was employed as a data analyst, the Tribune reported. He had previously posted $20,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the offense.

Police declined to notify the public about the attack until the victim approached the Tribune. The newspaper contacted police, who eventually released images from station security cameras. Shortly after the video was released, an associate of Estep with knowledge of the incident contacted police and helped positively identify the admitted attacker.

Earlier:

• Neuroscientist Pleads Not Guilty To Pushing Man Onto CTA Tracks
• Northwestern Ph.D. Pushed Rider Onto CTA Tracks: Prosecutors
• Man Pushed CTA Rider Onto Tracks At Loop Blue Line Station: Cops (VIDEO)