CHICAGO, IL—On Monday, August 10, Chicago Police Department (CPD) announced in a news conference that more than 100 people were arrested and 13 police officers were injured during a night of looting and unrest in downtown, Chicago. Officials indicate that the looting came after a separate incident wherein an officer was involved in a shooting.
At the beginning of the conference, CPD Superintendent David Brown explained that the shooting with the officer involved occurred in San Francisco’s Englewood neighborhood on Sunday, August 9 in the afternoon. A 20-year-old man was wounded. Brown claims the offender fled and fired shots at the officers. Then, the officers returned fire and the shots hit him. Brown says that the young man had four previous arrest charges including child endangerment, burglary, and domestic battery. No officers were injured in the incident.
On the night of Sunday, August 9, 400 police officers were dispatched to downtown Chicago after seeing the posts which encouraged people to loot on social media. As the officers arrived, they saw caravans were heading to the Loop area. The looting spread across the downtown area including Loop, the River North neighborhood, Gold Coast, and Magnificent Mile which is a popular tourist spots in Chicago.
According to an article by The Chicago Tribune, people broke into the stores on Michigan Avenue with their shopping bags full of items during the looting.
“This was not an organized protest. Rather, this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city,” said Brown.
Brown says an officer had his nose broken and a sergeant was hit by a bottle during the looting. Five guns were recovered.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot describes what happened as “straight-up felony criminal conduct” as per the news conference.
“We have activated a neighborhood protection plan, as the superintendent alluded to, which involves city agencies like Streets and San, CDOT, Aviation, working in coordination with the Chicago Police Department. These resources are being deployed throughout our city to protect our neighborhood,” said Lightfoot at the conference.
Looting In Downtown Chicago, 100 Arrested* was originally published on San Francisco News
