After another bloody Chicago weekend that saw a 7-year-old gunned down in the drive-thru of a Homan Square McDonald’s, the mayor said CPD Supt. David Brown is doing the best he can under “impossible” circumstances.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown is doing the best he can in an “impossible situation,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday, demanding federal gun-control laws, a resumption of criminal trials and an end to electronic monitoring that allows “violent criminals” to “terrorize” Chicago.
Lightfoot was on the hot seat — again — after another violent weekend in Chicago that left five people dead, including 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams, gunned down in broad daylight while driving through a Homan Square McDonald’s to get a meal with her father.
Another 22 people were shot and wounded over the weekend.
At an unrelated news conference at Walter Payton College Prep, Lightfoot was asked whether she is satisfied with the job Brown is doing to stop the bloodbath on Chicago streets.
“The short version is, yes I am. But, ask me if I’m satisfied with the job that everyone who has a responsibility for guns flowing into our city is doing. And the answer is, no,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor then launched into her oft-repeated tirade about the need for Congress to ban assault weapons, order “common sense background checks” and order “inter-jurisdictional cooperation” to prevent a never-ending pipeline of illegal guns to keep flowing onto Chicago streets.
“So, yes, I’m very satisfied with what our police superintendent and the police department are doing in an impossible environment where we’ve got to have help. And it starts with background checks, not allowing people who can’t fly on planes to actually get guns and banning assault weapons for starters,” she said.
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Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Lightfoot saved her harshest criticism for, what she called the missing pieces in the Cook County criminal justice system.
“We’ve got to actually hold people accountable who are wreaking havoc in our streets. The fact that we have gone now 13 months and we don’t have criminal trials in Cook County” is shameful, the mayor said.
“We just charged somebody yesterday. Two brothers who murdered a person … 11 bullets into them, in front of witnesses. And at least one of them was out on another gun charge, on electronic monitoring. This isn’t working. We need to have trials and we need to put dangerous people behind bars so that the community is actually safe.”
Lightfoot said she has been “having that conversation” about the need to rein in electronic monitoring for “over a year.”
“I don’t control electronic monitoring, `cause I’ll tell you if I did, that problem would be solved,” the mayor said.
Lightfoot said it’s time to put pressure on the county courts system. That means Chief Judge Tim Evans, the presiding judge of criminal court and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who, the mayor said, has been a “great partner” to the city.
“This is madness that we are allowing really violent people back out on the street with ankle bracelets or some other form of pre-trial release and they’re terrorizing our communities over and over again,” she said.
Jaslyn Adams’ father, Jontae Adams, was shot and seriously wounded in the shooting. The shooting occurred around 4:20 p.m. while Adams was driving his silver Infiniti through the McDonald’s at 3200 W. Roosevelt Rd.
Police said the shooting was believed to be gang-related. Less than three hours later, two people were shot in their car at a Popeyes in Humboldt Park; investigators believe that shooting is connected to the McDonald’s shooting.
In the Humboldt Park incident, a 33-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were in a blue Chevrolet Malibu, having just ordered food, at the Popeyes drive-thru window at Chicago and Kedzie avenues when a gunman pulled up in a car at 7:12 p.m and opened fire.
The man was shot in the left leg; the woman in the abdomen. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital, with the man in serious condition, the woman in critical.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson said she feels “like a broken record talking about how my hear aches” every time another CPS student is gunned down on Chicago streets.
“The Jaslyn situation was particularly heartbreaking for me because, when I heard she was going to McDonald’s with her father, I just thought of what that felt like to me as a kid. That was like, always a big deal. You get to go to McDonald’s and I get to do it with my dad,” Jackson said.
“I can only imagine the heartbreak. I’m sick of our kids not feeling safe in this city — even doing something normal and regular.”