More than 100 people were arrested Monday after a night of looting and unrest causing 13 officers injuries and damage in the upscale shopping street Magnificent Mile and other parts of the city, authorities said. CBS Chicago reports police Superintendent David Brown said it was “an incident of pure crime” that was shot by a person in the city of Englewood the previous day.
At some point early Monday, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire, but no injuries were reported. Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in downtown until further notice.
“This was straight up, criminal activity,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “This was an attack on our city.”
The people who were arrested were expected to have charges, including looting, harassment behavior, battery against police. Lightfoot said the city has put in place a neighborhood protection program that will be in place “for days to come, until we know our neighborhoods are safe.”
Many of the businesses that were fired were recently opened after Chicago protests of George Floyd’s death on May 25 in Minneapolis turned into chaos. Chicago companies reported $ 66 million in damaged as stolen property to police during the looting and unrest following Floyd’s death, according to public records obtained by CBS Chicago.
CBS Chicago reports that former Bears player Patrick Mannelly witnessed the placement from his high-rise condo and saw cars drive to a U-Haul truck and put stolen goods in the trailer.
Apparent looting of a Walgreens was also captured on video by Frank Calabrese:
The unrest began shortly after midnight on the Magnificent Mile, one of Chicago’s most visited tourist attractions. Hours earlier, dozens of people had to deal with police after officers shot and wounded a person near Englewood on Sunday, about 10 miles away.
Brown said after a crowd chased that shooting “we are checking social media and we come across a post of a caravan with cars being asked to go to our downtown and loot.”
Along the Magnificent Mile, people were seen walking in and out of shops carrying groceries and on a bench, the Chicago Tribune reported, and as the crowd grew, cars dropped off more people in the area. On streets throughout the city center, empty cash registers lined up from shops and ATMs were written open.
Shops miles from downtown were also fired, with parking lots contaminated with glass and items from the stores. Clothes hangers and boxes that once contained television sets and other electronics were seen – evidence that thieves took racks of clothes and removed them from the hangers.
“This was apparently very orchestrated,” the Rev. said. Michael Pfleger, a prominent Roman Catholic priest and activist on the South Side of the city, told WBBM-TV when cameras flooded downtown.
One officer was seen slumped against a building, several arrests were made and a rock was thrown at a police car, the newspaper said. Police worked early Monday to disperse the crowd.
There was a large police presence Monday morning outside an Apple store north of downtown Chicago. Blocks away, pun was strewn in parking lots for a Best Buy and a large liquor store.
Downtown train and bus transportation was temporarily halted at the request of public safety officials, the Chicago Transit Authority said on Twitter. Bridges across the Chicago River were lifted, preventing travel to and from the downtown area, and Illinois State Police blocked some highway disasters in the downtown area. Access was restored later Monday morning.
Chicago and its suburbs, like many other cities, saw unrest after Floyd’s death. Chicago’s central business district and its commercial areas were closed several days after violence erupted and stores were razed in the wake of marches protesting Floyd’s death. Floyd, a black man in handcuffs, died after a white officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for almost eight minutes because Floyd said he could not breathe.
In the shooting on Sunday in Englewood, police said in a statement that at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, they responded to a call about a person with a gun and tried to confront someone who matched his description in an alley. He fled from officials on foot and shot at officers, police said.
Officers returned fire, wounded him, and a gun was recovered, police said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and three officers involved were also taken to a hospital for observation, the statement said.
More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd was confronted by police after one person told police police had shot and injured a child. That audience eventually dispersed.
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