Chicago PD Releases Footage Of Deadly Shooting Near Downtown, Tourist Areas

Chicago police officials released a disturbing video late Wednesday showing a violent altercation on one of the bridges over the Chicago River, near the city’s bustling downtown and “Magnificent Mile” high-end shopping district, in the hopes of catching an alleged killer.

The video, which is graphic, shows an altercation that happened July 19th on the 300 block of North Wabash, on the bridge that connects the city’s Loop central business district with its touristy River North district, just south of Chicago’s Trump Tower.

The fight, which took place around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, left one person dead, per Fox News.

“The nearly four-minute video shows a group of about 10 men walking on the Wabash Avenue Bridge before a few of them look off toward the street. Police highlight one man wearing black pants and a black T-shirt who then pulls out a gun and holds it in his right hand,” the outlet reported. “A few moments later, the man opens fire, as another suspect behind him appears to pull out a weapon and fire off a few rounds. Chaos quickly ensues as people scramble for cover and drop to the ground.”

Chicago police are hoping to identify the shooters and determine whether the violent altercation is connected to an ongoing rise in gang violence, which has given way to some of the deadliest weekends the city has seen since the 2016 crime wave. The victim in the surveillance clip was one of 60 people shot last weekend, and one of ten people killed.

Although Chicago has not struggled with political unrest like other major cities — specifically Portland, Oregon — the Trump administration has been stressing the need to send federal law enforcement agencies to Chicago to help control ongoing violence.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has largely resisted the offers, but on Wednesday, following a mass shooting outside of a funeral on the city’s south side that left 15 people wounded, Lightfoot begrudgingly agreed to a deal to bring in 200 federal agents.

Attorney General William Barr has assured Chicago officials that the influx of federal law enforcement officers would be of a different character than the surge in Portland, where federal officers have been assigned to protect federal property, including a central courthouse, from nightly violent demonstrations. Instead, the Chicago “surge” will be a partnership between Chicago police, “the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration,” per Pantagraph.

“The operations we’re talking about are the standard anti-crime fighting activities we have been carrying out around the country for decades,” Barr said Wednesday. “These are street agents, they’re investigators who will be working to solve murder and take down violent gangs. They will be working shoulder to shoulder with our state and local colleagues.”

Lightfoot warned that city officials would be watching the federal officers for signs of illegal activity.

“If we see any steps out of line, particularly with DHS or Border Patrol, we’re not going to hesitate to take the president to court,” she said. “Federal agents who are here in Chicago have been here for decades, FBI, DEA, and ATF. We routinely work in partnership with them. And importantly [it’s] a difference between what the president and Attorney General Barr did in Portland.”