Posted on 06/02/2026 6:46:15 AM PDT by TheDon
ATLANTA (Atlanta News First/Gray News) — A medical examiner identified the 66-year-old Atlanta woman who was fatally stabbed on a train over the weekend.
Margaret Swan was stabbed to death while on a public MARTA train on Saturday, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
MARTA police identified the suspect as 25-year-old John Elijah Matthews. He is facing murder charges for Saturday’s stabbing.
According to an arrest affidavit, police were met at the scene by a large crowd, who told officers to look for a Black man in an orange shirt who stabbed a woman at the Oakland City MARTA station.
Police said they found Matthews almost immediately near the north end of the platform with a knife nearby.
Matthews is accused of stabbing Swan 18 to 20 times, according to the affidavit.
Swan did not know her attacker, according to her family.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxcarolina.com ...
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A number of quotes in the article are from riders talking about how security has become lax and how riders are scared and want more of a law enforcement presence on the subway. The lack of a law enforcement presence is a result of "defund the police" in a lot of these cities. The police, including subway police, budgets were gutted. It became hard to find good candidates to fill positions. And so the streets and subways were left open to criminals and lunatics to do what they want, including killing people like this woman. I never lived in Atlanta but did live in New York City in the 1990s at a time when there was always a police presence in the subway. You could ride it at any time day or night and feel safe. Those days are gone. Hopefully they can come back.
Such behavior cannot be explained by culture alone.
“a lot of people moving in from places like Florida and a lot of places”
I highly doubt that more like the other way around...
Pretty much can.
“We’re getting a lot of tourists, a lot of people moving in from places like Florida and a lot of places,” Tabannah said.
"We prefer to keep these things in the dark. So to speak." he added.
Every. Single. Time.
Stoke the fires of Hell, cuz that fr’kn POS is on his way soon!! ... imho

Yup its them again, Yogi. They never stop.
Most urban rail systems are infested by these vermin, who steal rides without paying, and cause trouble. They just jump off when they see enforcers coming toward them.
There really needs to be a robust system to screen riders as they enter the trains for an actual purchase. This would reduce these vermin by over 80%. We can no longer rely on being a high-trust society of people who are honest.
My days of walking a beat in the projects of DC taught me otherwise.
Some years ago, 10-15, a good friend of ours was on a jury for a civil suit for someone suing MARTA over lack of security resulting in the plaintiff being injured. Our friend saw a lot of detailed evidence of violent crime on the MARTA system. She will absolutely NOT ride MARTA!
Meanwhile, all the urban planner types wonder why ridership isn’t more robust.
So you’re saying you’re good at pattern recognition?
Me too.
Some patterns cannot not be noticed.
Black on black crime.
And the entrenched political pols (like those in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco) cannot figure out why people shun public transportation.
Remember when the then-mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, and the governor of the state, Kathy Hochul, declared the NYC system safe?
When in reality, most big-city metro systems are filthy and dangerous.
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