Posted Oct. 6 at 5:03 p.m.

How said that ridiculous and needless violence has again claimed the life of a teen in Chicago, and on a CTA bus, no less...an enclosed space where customers are merely trying to get from A to B. 

This cannot be blamed on the transit agency, any more than the street corners can be blamed when shots ring out there. There are no metal detectors, armed guards or any other practical law enforcement tools onboard these buses, and surely the people who choose to act out on these vehicles know it. 

"Going Public" would like to take a moment to express deep sorrow and sympathy for the family and friends of Kiyanna Salter, a Julian High School student slain on a bus, the victim of a pointless argument between two strangers on Sunday.   

The details of her death, caught in the crossfire between armed strangers, are both saddening and sickening.  A wake-up call, not on CTA safety, but on big city violence. 

Earlier this year, I had the good fortune to speak with Ron Holt, father of another Julian student named Blair, also felled during a shoot-out on a CTA bus last year.  At the time we talked, he spoke of how random the violence was that took his son, who died trying to shield a seatmate from bullets.  What a shame to see a similar incident end another promising future.

There is not much to do in such cases, but if riders witnessed anything, please call police and share any details you can offer.  Show these offenders who turn a bus ride into a killing zone that human life does not come at so cheap a price.