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After no charges were laid against warring gang members arrested and released following a deadly shooting in broad daylight in a Chicago residential neighborhood, the public feuds between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the district attorney. Cook County State Kim Foxx continued on Tuesday as Foxx called a rare new conference imploring the mayor to avoid taking the matter to the media and “tell the truth.”
“I don’t usually do press conferences often,” Foxx said at a press conference in Englewood on Tuesday. “I find myself here today having to respond to an account given by the mayor about a case that is still under investigation. It was inappropriate. It was wrong. As a prosecutor, who understands the oath, and as a former prosecutor discussing the facts of this case in the press without the benefit of all the evidence does a disservice to the communities that have been affected by this violence. ”
“Our job is not just to make an arrest, but also to secure a conviction,” Foxx said. “There were statements made by the mayor yesterday regarding the evidence in this case which was simply not true.”
SHOOTING IN CHICAGO: LIGHTFOOT AND ATTORNEY FOXX SWAP WORDS WAR FOR NO CHARGES LAYED IN GANG GUNFIGHT
Refusing to discuss exactly the inaccurate statements about the case, Foxx noted that Chief Detective Brendan Deenihan had mentioned twice on Monday that there was insufficient evidence for the charges at the time of Friday after the shooting that occurred earlier in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. The shooting captured by a city surveillance camera left one dead and injured two others, who were among five people arrested and later released when the Foxx office refused to press charges.
“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that the necessary work is done so that we can lay charges and ultimately secure a conviction for those who engage in the violence that we have seen in this city. Foxx said. “This is our mission. This is not to judge cases in the media or to play politics on the deaths of children, veterans and members of our community.”
Since taking office in 2016, Foxx said there had been 13,374 shootings in the city of Chicago until July of this year – but only 2,447 resulted in an arrest. The state prosecutor also criticized Zone 5 detectives for allegedly leaking information to the media in the past.
It was Zone 5 detectives who have been at odds with Foxx in recent months after his office refused to pursue several high-profile cases, including the shooting of National Guard member Chrys Carvajal in July and Serenity. Broughton, 7, in August, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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Responding at an independent press conference in Pilsen later Tuesday, Lightfoot doubled down on his criticism of Foxx, telling reporters that the mayor’s office had asked US Attorney John Lausch to review the evidence in the gang shooting in Austin Friday.
“I’d like her to explain herself because I can’t explain it,” said Lightfoot, referring to Foxx’s decision not to press charges. “I get calls from residents. I get calls from other officials. We have to understand how it is possible, when this kind of shooting is filmed, that no one has been charged, even though people have been taken into custody. in custody and arrested. “
“Whatever evidence needs to be gathered, the police department will be Johnny on site and make sure we get it,” Lightfoot said after appearing with US Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Marcia Fudge , during an unrelated event. “But it is, for me, a very convincing case.”
Lightfoot also responded to a question about Deenihan, who allegedly said video of the shooting was not clear enough to press charges. The mayor insisted that Deenihan’s superior, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, believed otherwise.
“The question I might have for him [Deenihan] when I see it shortly, frankly, in Beverly, Mount Greenwood, anywhere on the North Side, would there really be no clarity? “said Lightfoot, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The feud between the two Democratic powers began when Lightfoot, at a press conference on Monday, called the prosecutor for not filing a complaint despite video of the shooting.
The mayor and five aldermen also wrote a letter to Foxx imploring him to reconsider the charges against at least the offenders who first shot at a residential house around 11 a.m. , and a shootout ensued, spraying over 70 rounds in the street.
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Uniformed officers in a marked patrol car also attended the scene shortly after and witnessed the activity, the letter said. SWAT was called in when people inside the house refused to come out, giving them time to put their weapons away. Only gun cases, but no guns, were found inside.
Foxx previously cited “mutual fighters” in its decision not to press charges, a legal term referring to when the two sides voluntarily fight on an equal footing, but the mayor insisted that the people who started the shots were not mutual fighters and were not firing in self-defense.
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