A 17-year-old boy was questioned today about the death of a 68-year-old woman who was pushed down the stairs of the Fullerton Avenue "L" station by a fleeing robber.
Sally Katona-King, a Lutheran deacon and mother of three, apparently was in the way of a robber who had snatched an iPhone from a passenger as a Brown Line train pulled into the Fullerton station. She died a day later, on March 29.
The teen being questioned was arrested on May 15 near the Clark/Division Red Line stop for a similar robbery. He allegedly grabbed an iPhone from a woman and ran. She chased him, and police on patrol caught up with him. A month later, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison in a juvenile facility.
He was in that facility in Joliet when authorities took him into custody in connection with Katona-King's death.
No new charges had been filed against the teen as of late Thursday.
Katona-King was an active volunteer and deacon at First Lutheran Church of Logan Square, where she cooked meals for the homeless, according to her daughter.
On March 28, she had left her job for the day as a receptionist at Evangelical Lutheran Metropolitan Chicago Synod and apparently was on her way to do errands as she climbed up the stairs of the Fullerton stop.
It was not clear what evidence, if any, linked the juvenile who was jailed in Joliet to the March "L" robbery.
Police had issued a sketch and description of the suspect after interviewing witnesses and studying surveillance video.