Police, firefighters and paramedics from Arlington Heights responded about 6:35 p.m. Friday, January 23,2026 to reports of a fight in progress involving two males near the Metra train station in downtown Arlington Heights, 45 West Northwest Highway. An eyewitness told CARDINAL NEWS that one of the male subjects was claiming he was “God and Satan”, and that one of the males had a long beard. Upon arrival, police discovered the two males were inside the Metra train station.
One of the males (with a long beard) was transported by Arlington Heights Fire Department paramedics to Northwest Community Hospital. According to an eyewitness, he was “yelling F-bombs at the cops” before he was loaded into the ambulance. In a submitted video, he also appeared to be using the F-word at paramedics that were loading him into the ambulance.
One of the males appeared to be detained by police; however, there was initially no information whether there were any arrests or charges.
Trains were delayed on the Metra UP Northwest Line because of a broken rail on Track 1, which is believed to be the inbound track toward Chicago. The broken rail may have caused discontinuity of sensory current that controls the train gates, which were stuck in the down position in the Park Ridge area. The crossing near Busse and Greenwood had gates stuck down, and motorists were driving around the gates. The safety hazard required that trains stop or slow down in the area. A passenger told CARDINAL NEWS that there was information from Metra on the train that there was a broken rail. There was also an issue at Harlem and Avondale, an possibly five other locations near Park Ridge.
Initially, it was unknown whether the fight was related to the train delays.
The broken rail was probably weather-related with the extremely cold temperatures Friday evening. The Air Temperature was -8°F with a Wind Chill of -24°F at 5:51 p.m. at the NWS Weather station O’Hare International Airport.
NWS Chicago – O’Hare 5:51 PM
A Few Clouds and -8 F at O’Hare Int’l Airport
NOAA’s National Weather Service
Winds West at 9.2 MPH (8 KT).
The pressure is 30.73
Humidity is 40%.
Wind Chill -24.
^^ MOBILE? USE VOICE MIC ^^
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