Big deal, I say send in the Army and Marine Corps

CPD to put 1,200 extra officers on street starting Thursday

The move comes after another violent weekend, with 65 shootings, 18 of them fatal — including three children. “We’re all part of the city,” CPD Supt. David Brown said. “We can no longer turn a blind eye to the violence here.”
By Tom Schuba and Sam Charles Jun 29, 2020, 11:26am CDT


Chicago Police Supt. David Brown gestures toward a table of guns police say were confiscated by CPD officers over the weekend. During a press conference at CPD headquarters Monday morning, Brown discussed the weekend violence that saw 18 killed, including three children, and another 47 people wounded. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
After another jarring weekend of gun violence in Chicago left 18 people dead — including three children — and 47 others wounded, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown announced Monday that 1,200
additional officers will hit the streets over the historically violent Fourth of July weekend.

Starting Thursday, the surge in additional officers will be deployed in “hotspots” for violence throughout the city, according to Brown, who acknowledged that “tired cops make mistakes” and said he will make sure every officer gets a day off.

Brown started Monday’s news conference at CPD headquarters by decrying the “evil bastards behind those guns who caused the senseless loss of life this past weekend.”

That included a 1-year-old shot while he rode in a car with his mom — police said the child’s dad, who was not in the car, was the intended target — and also a 10-year-old girl killed by a bullet that came through the window of a Logan Square apartment.

“When we have young innocent lives lost,” Brown said, “we all need to be outraged, all of us, by this violence.”

“We’re all part of the city,” he added. “We can no longer turn a blind eye to the violence here.”

In a news conference later Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that what causes her the “greatest heartache” as a mother, mayor and human being is “seeing our babies killed.”


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As police asked for the public’s help solving the spate of recent shootings, CPD Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan told reporters that detectives have identified vehicles that may have been used in those killings.

The 20-month-old boy, identified as Sincere Gaston, was shot Saturday afternoon while riding home from a laundromat with his mother, who was also wounded in the attack. Gaston’s father appeared to be the intended target because he often drove the same car, noted Deenihan, who said investigators are now searching for a gray Infiniti that “could possibly be the suspect vehicle.”

Deenihan added that Lina Nunez, the 10-year-old girl fatally struck by a stray bullet hours later in Logan Square, appears to have been shot by a gang member targeting rivals from almost a block away.

“So once again, it’s gang-on-gang violence. It’s outdoors. It’s shooting with a handgun,” said Deenihan, adding that detectives have also identified a “suspect vehicle” in that shooting as well, though he did not offer details.

Beefing up patrols during historically violent holiday weekends — Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day — is a favored tactic by the CPD.

In 2019, the department deployed an extra 1,500 officers over the Fourth of July weekend. Five people were killed and another 63 were wounded by gunfire over the holiday weekend last year.

The year before, the CPD sent out another extra 1,500 cops, and the holiday weekend ended with six killed and another 66 people injured in shootings.

In 2017, the department deployed an extra 1,300 officers over the Fourth of July weekend. The Fourth fell on a Tuesday that year, and more than 100 people were shot — 14 fatally — over the especially long holiday weekend.

With the holiday weekend’s weather forecast calling for sunny skies and high temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s, police will likely have their hands full.

Along with extra patrols, the department also typically conducts a series of narcotics and gun raids just before holiday weekends. Department officials have said the goal of those raids is to ensure that those most likely to be involved in violence — either as the shooter or victim — are locked up over the holiday.

Brown urged the public to identify shooters or offer any other information that might help police solve fatal shootings.

“Silence emboldens, empowers those who continue to terrorize our neighborhoods,” he said.Chicago Police Supt. David Brown addresses the city’s weekend gun violence during a press conference at CPD headquarters on the South Side, Monday morning, Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

“Now is the time to stand up and say, enough is enough. ... For God’s sake, for the sake of Chicago’s children ... I am pleading. Please help us bring these murderers to justice,” he added.

As Brown argued again for keeping more violent offenders locked up, he said police “need the help of the entire criminal justice system.” He claimed that electronic monitoring and “endanger our residents” and negate “the hard work of our officers to taken them off the streets.”


Though Brown just started on the job in April — and continues to hear that he’s “new here” — he made it clear that he “will never accept this level of violence.” It’s a very complex problem, Brown said, but he noted that solving it at the very least means that “we must keep violent offenders in jail.”

“I will continue to bring attention to the sheer number of repeat offenders who are given little to no jail time and low bonds and are placed on electronic monitoring that are not monitored and go on to commit more crime,” he said.

Brown singled out 19-year-old Laroy Battle, who was charged last week with fatally shooting two other teenagers earlier this month at a gas station in Englewood and was free on probation at the time of the attack after pleading guilty to a gun charge.

Brown said that specific gun charge — unlawful use of a weapon — is a “precursor to violence in Chicago,” adding that open air drug markets are “the pipeline for shootings and murders.” He claimed that “evil masterminds” controlling the drug trade are placing younger individuals on drug corners specifically because they don’t have criminal backgrounds.

“Our end game is arrests for the precursors to violence. So every day we’re going to be clearing corners,” said Brown, who pleaded “with the court system to keep them in jail for the weekend.”

Lightfoot said she already had met with State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Timothy Evans, chief judge of Cook County Circuit Court, to discuss “how we can do a better job collaborating” to stop the violence.

There are, Lightfoot said, no simple answers. She called on all Chicagoans to what we can do every single day to “wrap our arms around these children” — not just the victims, but the shooters as well.

Contributing: Fran Spielman