Claws Come Out When Lightfoot Goes After Attorney Of School Shooters

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Cook confronted state attorney Kim Foxx at a press conference Monday over her decision not to prosecute gang members involved in a deadly shooting last week.

“She’s got to explain to the public, why? Given that evidence, a pod camera right there that captured the entire thing and police officers on the scene in uniform, and a squad car there, why that isn’t enough?” Lightfoot asked.

“If the bad guys that are out there that are picking up guns and shooting without any regard for the sanctity of life, do not believe that there’s accountability for them, the brazenness will not end. It will escalate, it will continue and our communities will not be safe,” she continued.

Three gang members started shooting at a home in Chicago’s West Side on Friday in an attempt to flush out members of a rival gang, when three people inside the home returned fire, when the shooting stopped there was one dead and two others were injured.

The incident was captured by a city camera, police officers on the scene recovered more than 70 shells and several gun cases, according to Fox News. A SWAT team was called when suspects in the house refused to come out.

Police wanted to file charges of murder and aggravated battery on all five suspects, however, a Chicago police spokeswoman said Sunday morning that the suspects had “been released without charges,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office explained in a statement later Sunday that prosecutors decided “the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to approve felony charges.” She added that police officials were in agreement with their decision.

“It’s complicated, for sure,” Lightfoot said during Monday’s press conference “But we really urge the state’s attorney herself to get personally involved, look at the evidence, and I believe that there are charges that can be brought, at a minimum against the individuals who initiated the gunfire.”

Foxx returned fire at Lightfoot during a press conference Tuesday morning, calling her comments “inappropriate,”

“I find myself here today having to respond to a narrative given by the mayor,” the state prosecutor said. “There were statements made by the mayor yesterday regarding the evidence in this case that were simply not true. It was inappropriate. It was wrong.”

Mayor Lightfoot, Prosecutor Go At It Over Not Prosecuting Gang Members In Deadly Shooting

`“As a former federal prosecutor, the mayor knows of the ethical obligation of the prosecutor to only bring forth charges where the facts, evidence, and law support it,” she continued. “She is also fully aware that as a prosecutor we are obligated not to try cases in the media.”