Mayor calls Chicago looting "a planned attack" *****xrQQyVWdDs pic.twitter.com/uDzEmu1F1w
— The Hill (@thehill) August 13, 2020
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) says that the looting and violence that hit the city's downtown late Sunday and early Monday following a police shooting were not the unplanned actions of angry protesters but rather an organized assault.
“When people showed up on Michigan Avenue in the downtown area with U-Haul trucks and cargo vans, and sophisticated equipment used to cut metal, and the methods that were used, and how quickly it got spun up … that wasn’t any spontaneous reaction,” Lightfoot told Time magazine in an interview published Wednesday.
She added: "To be sure, there are people that did join in that were motivated by lots of different reasons, and certainly were motivated by social media posts encouraging people to come downtown. But the core of what happened — that’s organized criminal activity … It was a planned attack.”
Tensions flared in the Windy City on Sunday evening after 20-year-old Latrell Allen, who is Black, was shot by Chicago police.
According to the department, officers responded to reports of a man with a gun in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. When officers approached Allen, he allegedly took off running.
Police say that as they gave pursuit, Allen fired at them. Returning the fire, officers hit Allen in the shoulder, according to police Superintendent David Brown.
Allen is reportedly still in the hospital, but is expected to recover. He has been charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possession of a concealed weapon. His bond was raised to $1 million on Monday.
However, accurate details of what happened immediately after police shot Allen were scarce, causing misinformation to rapidly gain traction.
Rumors that Allen was a 15-year-old boy who had been shot 15 times and killed quickly became widespread.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/511709-mayor-calls-chicago-looting-a-planned-attack
