Man gets 6 years for bringing AK-47 to Belmont CTA platform

Surveillance video shows Jordan Watkins allegedly carrying an AK-47 on the CTA’s Belmont platform in 2017. | U.S. Attorney’s Office

A man has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for strapping a rifle to his chest and attempting to sneak it onto a North Side CTA platform.

Jordan Watkins, 31, was on parole on July 29, 2017 when he brought a loaded rifle on the Belmont station’s platform at 945 W. Belmont Ave., the U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement.

Chicago police said he was carrying an AK-47.

Watkins was also carrying a messenger bag with two 30-round magazines, one of which had four rounds, prosecutors said.

Jordan Watkins

Someone called 911 to report a man who “had a gun on him and like a really big clip,” prosecutors said. Police responded at 6:23 a.m. and arrested Watkins on the southbound platform.

He pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of illegal gun possession by a felon, prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood on Wednesday sentenced Watkins to 6 years and 4 months in federal prison.

Watkins, who lived in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, was on parole for 2013 convictions of armed robbery and possession of a controlled substance, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was released from prison in August 2016.