4 Guardian Angels Stabbed While Intervening In Armed Robbery On CTA Red Line

Four members of the Guardian Angels, a red beret-clad volunteer community patrol group, were stabbed Tuesday evening while they were attempting to thwart an armed robbery they witnessed at a CTA Red Line train platform on the Near North Side.

Police say that a man armed with a handgun hit a 27-year-old male train passenger several times with his gun and snatched his iPhone around 11:13 p.m. on the platform at the Clark and Division stop, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

After the group of Guardian Angels, also on the platform while waiting to get on the train, saw the attack, they intervened. One "angel" grabbed the robber's arm, but he was able to break away and head toward the station turnstile, according to the Chicago Tribune.

There, three other "angels" took down the robber, but a male accomplice approached them from behind, pulled out a knife and hit and stabbed them, the Tribune reports.

The robbing suspects were able to flee the scene after the stabbings and remain at-large Wednesday morning, NBC Chicago reports. The men were wounded on their arms -- and one on his head -- and required 17 stitches in one man's case. They were treated and released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and plan to return to their patrols Wednesday evening.

"We understand that it's part of being out there, that at any given moment something could happen and you have to act," Miguel Fuentes, Guardian Angels Chicago Chapter leader, told NBC.

The passenger attacked in the robbery was also treated and released from the hospital, CBS Chicago reports.