Last Monday, hours after three people were shot and three others stabbed in separate incidents following the Chicago Pride Parade, city officials offered glowing reviews of their performance.
Everyone responsible for the shootings and stabbings was in custody, they said.
“The next best thing to preventing it is holding the person accountable and making an arrest right away, which is what happened,” CPD Supt. David Brown told reporters Monday afternoon. Police also recovered a gun from the shooting, Brown said.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) agreed with Brown’s assessment.
“There were incidents. The shooting and, then, the stabbing. But all assailants are in custody. That’s what I’ve heard from the commander,” the veteran Lakeview alderman told the Sun-Times. “It’s unfortunate. But I have to give a shout-out to the police. They did an amazing job.”
Indeed, moments after the shooting, Chicago police arrested three people who allegedly had a gun in a pickup truck similar to one that was seen speeding away from the shooting.
And police arrested a woman for allegedly slashing and stabbing three people near the Belmont Red Line station.
But, CWBChicago has learned, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office refused to file any charges against the three people who were in the pickup truck. As of this morning, no one is in custody for the triple shooting.
And the stabbing case?
Well, CPD issued a press release last Tuesday evening to announce that a woman had been charged with three felony counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
On Wednesday morning, they issued a correction. She had only been charged with misdemeanors.
Why? Because the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office rejected felony charges.
‘Kim Foxx says let them go!’
At 1:27 a.m. last Monday, dozens of shots were fired on a parking lot where a crowd of people was hanging out near the intersection of Clark, Barry, and Halsted streets. Two men and a woman were shot.
Hundreds of Chicago police officers were in the area to handle the large crowds and seemingly inevitable violence that descends on the area around Boystown after recent Pride Parades.
Cops immediately radioed that shots had been fired and a vehicle, described as a “Dodge Ram pickup” and, alternatively, a “black truck,” was leaving the scene, according to a CPD report.
Two or three minutes later, officers saw a black Dodge Ram pickup truck heading north on Broadway near Roscoe Street. They pulled it over.
As officers removed three men from the four-door truck, bystanders swooped in to record the incident on their phones.
“Let them go! Kim Foxx says let them go! Lawsuit! Lawsuit!” a man yelled in a video that has since been removed from the Citizen app. “Yeah, you mother f*cking clowns … I want a badge number from each and every one of you all.”
“Another stupid mother f*cking clown … Incompetent! Incompetent! Let ’em go,” he continued. “Kim Foxx says let them go. Kim Foxx, Kim Foxx says let them go! Let them go!”
Unbeknownst to the bystanders, police saw an ammunition magazine lying on the truck’s front passenger floorboard and a handgun in the rear passenger area, according to a CPD report that documented the stop.
Police records indicate that officers sought charges for aggravated battery by discharging a firearm against at least one of the truck’s occupants. But, two days after the men were arrested, they were all released, according to police records.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not respond to an inquiry about the matter.
‘Inconsistent statements’
CPD emailed media outlets last Tuesday evening to inform them that Lakendra Porter, 24, had been charged with three felony counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing three people in the 1000 block of West Belmont hours after the Pride Parade had ended.
According to police, Porter allegedly flailed a knife during an argument in the 1000 block of West Belmont around 11:27 p.m., injuring two women and one man. She tried to flee, but cops apprehended her almost immediately, according to CPD.
Police said a 28-year-old woman was in serious condition with stab wounds to her chest, arm, and back. A 20-year-old man suffered a stab wound on his back. He was in fair condition. And a 35-year-old woman was in good condition with a stab wound to her buttocks. EMS took all of them to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Porter was also taken to Masonic for treatment of a laceration to her face.
Some 15 hours after CPD announced felony charges had been filed against Porter, the department sent a correction. Porter had only been charged with misdemeanor battery.
Nearly two days after she was arrested, Porter walked out of custody on a recognizance bond that was issued at the police station, according to CPD records.
According to a source familiar with the investigation, prosecutors in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office refused to file felony charges against Porter due to “inconsistent statements.” Police were left to file misdemeanor charges, which do not require approval from the state’s attorney’s office.
Last week, we emailed the state’s attorney’s office to learn more about the decision.
No one replied.