‘IT’S LIKE A KEG OF DYNAMITE’
POLICE SHOOTING IN ENGLEWOOD LEADS TO LOOTING, GUNFIRE DOWNTOWN
Some six weeks after the killing of George Floyd triggered protests and looting throughout Chicago, a police shooting in Englewood on Sunday afternoon — and subsequent rumormongering on social media — led to additional shootings downtown, along with widespread theft and destruction in the city’s Magnificent Mile and other retail shopping districts.
Two people were shot and more than 100 were arrested as hundreds of people looted dozens of high-end shops from the South Loop to Lincoln Park, leaving heaps of shattered glass and empty storefronts in their wake.
When the dust settled, business owners broke out their brooms and called insurance companies to begin picking up the pieces of the second wave of looting this summer. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her police superintendent defended the cops and blamed Cook County prosecutors for being soft on looters who’d been arrested in late May and early June, setting the stage for the violence. The county’s top prosecutor, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, responded that she’s prosecuting looters to the fullest extent of the law and said Lightfoot is oversimplifying the issue.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people squared off with police near Madison Street and Karlov Avenue on Monday afternoon, with rocks, bottles and bricks being hurled. And Black Lives Matter challenged the police department’s narrative of the Sunday afternoon shooting of a 20-year-old man that led to it all.
But prosecutors on Monday evening charged the man, Latrell Allen,
with two counts of attempted murder for shooting at officers in Englewood before they shot him.
As Lightfoot put restrictions on access in and out of downtown for the second time this year, community activists were left trying to make sense of what had happened.
“Chicago is unstable. It’s like a keg of dynamite right now,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn Gresham,
about 3 miles south of where the police shooting occurred. “People are so frustrated, so hopeless, so angry, and it doesn’t take much — you light a match and throw it on a fire, it goes up.”
“We have to start understanding why this is even happening,” Ja’Mal Green, a community activist and former mayoral candidate, told WGN News. “Whenever there’s a situation where people get angry
enough to start breaking stuff and stealing, we’re in a bad situation, and we need to figure out what problems we have to tackle.”
Lightfoot and Police Supt. David Brown stressed that the looting wasn’t connected to any peaceful protest, unlike the circumstances that led to looting after Floyd’s death.
“Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions,” Brown said.
Englewood shooting a spark
Allen’s family denied that he had a gun, and CPD said no bodycam footage captured the shooting. But the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency that investigates uses of force by CPD officers, said that its investigation so far confirms that Allen fired at officers before he was shot.
After the shooting around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, a crowd gathered in the area. “Tempers flared, fueled by misinformation,” Brown said. Lightfoot said the shooter was “not an unarmed juvenile” as was “propagated on social media.”
Rumors about the shooting continued to swirl on social media Sunday night, feeding still-high tensions between police and Englewood residents.
Looting soon broke out at stores near 87th Street and the Dan Ryan. Within hours, a caravan headed north toward downtown, Brown said.
Many of the most recognizable stores along and near the famed Magnificent Mile shopping strip had their windows broken and inventory stolen, including Coach, Timberland, Nike, Nordstrom, Burberry, Macy’s, Chase bank, Ugg, Pandora jewelry, Zara, Saks Fifth Avenue, Ralph Lauren, Verizon, Omega, Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale’s, Swiss Fine Timing, AllSaints, Dior, Brunello Cucinneli, Oliver Peoples, Hermès, Giorgio Armani, Jimmy Choo and Saint Laurent.
By Monday afternoon, reports of looting on the West Side were still coming in to CPD dispatchers.
Two people were shot downtown amid the looting. More than 100 were arrested. More gunshots were fired at and by CPD officers near Lake Street and Michigan Avenue, though no one was struck. All told, 13 police officers were injured. Authorities didn’t provide injury statistics for civilians.
Bridges over the Chicago River were raised to keep people out of the area. CTA service to the Loop was halted. Downtown expressway exits were closed.
“Make no mistake, we were beyond overwhelmed,” said one CPD officer who was assigned to downtown from Sunday into Monday.
Scores of gawkers, many out for a morning run or walking their dog, milled about along the Magnificent Mile on Monday morning, snapping photos of the damage while crews worked to cover shattered windows with plywood.
‘Dishonest blame games’
Lightfoot and Brown admonished the looters as brazen opportunists with no respect for the rule of law.
Brown and Lightfoot also called on the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to handle the arrests from the looting seriously, arguing that previous arrests by Chicago police from looting in May and June — during the height of unrest — were not. With local prosecutors dropping cases, looters believed there would be no serious consequences for committing crimes, they said.
At her own news conference a few hours later, State’s Attorney Foxx pushed back.
“I think it’s incumbent upon us, for the people that we serve ... that we have an honest conversation about what’s happening right now,”
In response to looting and shootings that occurred early Monday, the city is restricting train and road access to downtown, requiring workers and residents to show identification to police to gain access and deploying officers to commercial corridors around the city.
Access to the downtown area will be restricted from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. “until further notice,” according to information released Monday evening by the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication (OEMC).
“All residents, essential workers and employees whose businesses are located downtown will have access at all times,” according to the OEMC.
Access points where residents and workers can enter downtown will be at Harrison Street, Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, Roosevelt Road and Canal Street, Kinzie Street and Halsted Street and LaSalle Street, according to the OEMC.
“Entrance into the perimeter will be manned by officers with the Chicago Police Department. When arriving at the access points, residents and employees should show identification or proof that they live in the area and/or work in the area,” according to the OEMC.
From 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., the following measures will be in place:
◆ Lake Shore Drive will be closed between Fullerton Avenue to the north and I-55 to the south.
◆ All downtown expressway ramps from Roosevelt Road to Division Street will be closed in both directions.
◆ A series of downtown bridges will be raised at 8 p.m., with the exception of the following bridges: La Salle Street, Harrison Street, Ida B. Wells/Congress Bridge (westbound open only), Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Avenue, Kinzie Street and Grand Avenue.
◆ CTA trains will stop well short of downtown, going no further than Fullerton Avenue, 47th and Halsted streets.
◆ CTA buses will remain open, though some buses will see reroutes due to bridge and street closures.
◆ Divvy bikes will not be available near downtown in an area bordered by North Avenue, Ashland Avenue and Cermak Road.
“The restricted access to the downtown area is NOT a curfew,” according to the OEMC.