Friends and family are asking for support for the medical bills of an Amtrak conductor and Homewood resident who was the victim of a May 15 shooting on the Naperville train platform.
Michael Case, a Navy veteran, was shot in the torso, according to Naperville police.
Police said Case was on the station platform when a disgruntled passenger fired at him from an open window inside the train. The shooter was restrained by other passengers, police said. Police took 79-year-old Edward Klein of West Allis, Wisconsin, into custody.
Case, 45, was taken to Edward Hospital in Naperville.
A GoFundMe page was started by Emalee Hallow, who works with Michael’s wife Sara Case at 5th Quarter Tap and Press Room at 18105 Dixie Highway in Homewood.
As of Monday afternoon, 55 people had donated $3,370. The goal was set at $10,000.
Michael Case was on a ventilator, sedated and couldn’t speak over the weekend, WGN reported, in critical condition with severe injuries to his intestines and organs.
He had a breathing tube removed and was able to speak, Sara Case said in an update to her Facebook page Sunday night.
“Dear friends and family, thank you as always for all the support, love and prayers. I honestly could not do this without you,” the post read. “So he made this hurdle, now on to the next, healing and physical rehab. He needs to build his strength, for the long road ahead.”
She said he soon will be going a physical rehabilitation facility.
“My heart breaks for him and what he’s been through and going to face,” she said in the post. “I love him to the moon and back. Everything all of you are doing has been so uplifting and inspiring. I am eternally grateful. God bless you all.”
The Associated Press reported that Klein appeared at a May 19 bond hearing in a DuPage County courtroom. He’s charged with attempted murder in the first degree and aggravated battery – discharging a firearm, according to the DuPage County sheriff’s web site.Klein, who is being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail, is scheduled to appear in court again on June 12.
During the bond hearing, prosecutors said Klein was planning to go to Las Vegas but instead boarded a train to Chicago in Kansas City. He asked to get off when it stopped in Naperville and became irate when he was told it wouldn’t be allowed.
Klein is retired but worked for the Federal Protective Service, a branch of Homeland Security that protects federal buildings. He lives in an independent-living facility, prosecutors said.