Video shows Chicago mass shooting; top cop grilled over violent crime
CHICAGO - New surveillance video shows a mass shooting unfold Thursday night on Chicago’s South Side. A one-month-old baby girl was shot in the head and critically injured. Six other people were also hurt.
The video shows two men shooting high-powered weapons, aiming all over 66th and Halsted in the Englewood neighborhood. People can be seen diving for cover as the men kept shooting repeatedly.
On Friday, a special City Council meeting on violence was held and was still in session as of 4 p.m. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown has faced hours of tough questions about the bloodshed and the police department's plans to prevent violent crime.
On Thursday, 32 people were shot across the city, including three young children.
South Side Alderman Ray Lopez took offense when Supt. Brown asked to shorten the special meeting.
"It’s outrageous, it’s insulting!" He said.
Brown suggested the special meeting was a distraction for him and his top deputies. Brown said that unless they get back to work quickly, killings might occur that would otherwise be prevented.
Brown's request was ignored. Chicago's top cop spent hours answering questions and enduring one tongue-lashing after another from council members frustrated in the face of another blood-soaked Fourth of July weekend. Brown said he had already missed one command meeting and absolutely needed to get to the next one.
"The most violent weekend of the year and the tip of the spear, these leaders and myself, are here. And we're here to inform you of our plans. But our time is impacting public safety, costing lives. We were up all night last night," Brown said.
The superintendent said Thursday’s carnage – 32 people shot, four dead – is what kept him, Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott and Deputy Eric Carter up last night. They are hoping to prevent the next step in Chicago’s classic cycle of violence: a series of retaliation killings. It can require a minute-by-minute redeployment of officers as gang factions deploy their own firepower.
Some aldermen were unimpressed by Brown's plea. The 15th Ward's Ray Lopez said Brown could have scheduled Friday’s public hearing earlier in the week.
"We know the violence that's in our streets. We know what happens. And to say that the entire department cannot function because the three of you are here is outrageous! It's insulting! Yesterday we had over a dozen people shot! Three children! One of my neighbors!" Lopez said.
Earlier in the week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot dismissed the call for Friday’s special meeting as "political shenanigans." Her former floor leader, Ald. Gil Villegas, rejected that claim, declaring, "This is not about shenanigans. People are fed up with this violence."