More details are emerging about what transpired during a weekend of riots and looting as the Chicago Police Department releases crime data for the uprising dates.
Among the big headlines: Police are investigating a previously unannounced homicide that took place outside Water Tower Place. And arson fires were reported at more than 15-times the city’s usual rate.
Mag Mile murder
Newly revealed in police crime data is a fatal shooting in the 800 block of North Michigan on Saturday, May 30. Asked about the murder, a Chicago Police Department spokesperson this week said a 23-year-old man arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital around 9:34 p.m. with gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, shoulder, and arms. He was later pronounced dead.
“This incident happened during the protest, however further details of the incident are currently unknown and under investigation by Area 3 detectives,” the spokesperson said.
A CPD source said the victim did not have any previous contact with Chicago police.
GPS data attached to the murder record correspond to a location directly outside Water Tower Place. CWBChicago reported on May 31 that Chicago police located a man with gunshot wounds on the side of Water Tower Place at 9:39 p.m. May 30, but no further information was available about the case at the time.
Within 15 minutes of the Michigan Avenue killing, three other people were shot within two blocks of Water Tower: two on the 100 block of East Oak Street and another on the 800 block of North Wabash, according to CPD records.
Police previously announced that a 26-year-old man was fatally shot on the 100 block of West Hubbard at 11:04 p.m. May 30.
Arsons soar
An average of one arson report was filed per day in Chicago between January 1 of last year and May 1 of this year. But more than 50 cases were reported in the four days between May 30 and June 2.
On May 30, the first day of the uprising, seventeen arsons were reported in Chicago, according to police data. Fifteen of those were set in the Loop and River North neighborhoods. Nine of the fires were set to vehicles, data shows. Four more were set to unspecified objects on streets. But only one business was set ablaze.
Things were different the next day. Police recorded sixteen arsons on Sunday, May 31. But none of those was in the downtown area. All were in neighborhoods, including four in Austin. Multiple fires were also reported in Englewood and Lawndale. Unlike Saturday’s arsons, nearly all of Sunday’s targeted businesses. Liquor stores, convenience stores, restaurants, a pawn shop, a currency exchange, and a bank were among the burned businesses.
Arson fires remained in neighborhoods on Monday, June 1. Englewood and Roseland reported multiple fires. Restaurants and convenience stores were particularly hard-hit. And there was one intentionally-set house fire in Lincoln Park.
The Lincoln Park fire was a harbinger of things to come the next day when five more fires broke out in alleys around the nearby Lakeview neighborhood.
Earlier this week, CWBChicago reported that 116 burglaries and 89 criminal damage to property reports had been filed in connection with the uprisings downtown.
