Since Chicago has adopted an “affordable bail” approach that allows more people charged with violent crimes to pay a fee to be released, at least 32 have been arrested for committing violent crimes after they were put back out on the streets.
CWBChicago reported Tuesday that it “identified 32 people who were charged with committing murder, attempted murder, or aggravated battery with a firearm while free on bail for serious felonies in 2020.”
Four of those identified by the outlet were “charged with shooting, and sometimes killing, more than one person.”
“But the actual number of killings and shootings committed by persons on bail is almost certainly much higher. As of the new year, arrests have been made in just 27% of Chicago’s 2020 murders and 2.7% (Yes. Two point seven percent) of non-fatal shootings, according to [Chicago Police Department] data,” the outlet reported.
CWBChicago pointed to the most famous 2020 example of a violent offender being released and committing another crime. On December 3, several men attempted to carjack retired Chicago Fire Department Lt. Dwain Williams when the target defended himself with a firearm. The three carjackers fired back, killing Williams. The Chicago Tribune reported late last year that 20-year-old Devin Barron was one of four men charged in connection with the carjacking and murder.
“Police say Barron was one of two gunmen who emerged from the rear of a stolen black Ford Fusion that followed Williams’ maroon Jeep Grand Cherokee to a popcorn shop in the 2400 block of West 118th Street in the Beverly Woods neighborhood,” the Tribune reported. “They waited for him to come out, and three left the Ford and confronted Williams, 65. He pulled out a revolver from his waistband and exchanged gunfire, police said. Williams was hit once in the abdomen and collapsed. The three got back into the car and sped down Artesian Avenue.”
As CWBChicago noted, Barron had been convicted five times as a juvenile and was out on bond with four pending cases against him – including one for a home invasion and kidnapping – when Williams was murdered.
Another example highlighted by CWBChicago was 17-year-old Antonio Reyes, who was still on probation for aggravated robbery and aggravated battery. In December, Reyes shot a man while he was out on bond with four pending juvenile cases against him, including several violent charges. He also killed a man last summer and is suspected in a third shooting. The June 24, 2020, murder of a man waiting for his girlfriend was followed by another shooting, with a car similar to one owned by the mother of Reyes’ child being used. In late November, a car belonging to Reyes’ grandmother was allegedly used in another shooting.
Chicago is not the only city struggling with crime after enacting similar bail reform measures. New York City saw its crime soar after passing similar reform (even before the summer’s violent riots), The Daily Wire’s Hank Berrien previously reported.