CHICAGO (AP) – The summer night when crowds descended on downtown Chicago, smashed store windows, and poured into gaping holes to grab as much merchandise as they could take away is a far cry remembered by many people in the city.
Even as the coronavirus crisis, the presidential election and the outbreak of gun violence in the city set other news aside, detectives and prosecutors stood by one of the biggest inquiries in the world. Chicago history to find and arrest those from the end of August 9 to the early hours of August. 10 turned block after block into the biggest crime scene the third largest city in the country has ever seen.
Four months later, detectives on a special task force are still reviewing thousands of hours of surveillance footage and describing the more than 1,100 tips they have received. They continue to add to the nearly 100 video clips they’ve posted online in hopes someone can identify suspects. And they monitor online shopping sites to see if someone suddenly has Gucci bags or electronics for sale.
All of this added to the arrest of more than 100 people – including one as recently as Wednesday – on various felony charges including burglary, looting, theft, firearms, selling stolen goods online and seizing 26 vehicles.
“The message (to the suspects) is that the task force is not resigning… and eventually you will be found and arrested,” Deputy Chief Brendan Deenihan said.
The crimes took place largely in and around the city center, including along the famous Magnificent Mile shopping district, and began after a false rumor that police had shot and killed a teenager on the south side and followed the protests and previous unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The arduous work of investigating the August crimes began with the collection of over 230 surveillance videos from stores that were affected and higher scores thanks to the city’s extensive network of surveillance cameras – approximately 2,000 hours of video.
Making the job more difficult was that many people’s faces were covered with the same masks used to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
This left detectives looking for something else to help identify the suspects. In one case, they matched a tattoo on the arm of a man who used a hammer to smash at least seven store windows with a tattoo of a jail reservation mug photo.
They also used the same strategy – on a much larger scale – used in the investigation that led to accusations against actor Jussie Smollett, accusing him of staging an attack on himself in 2019. All As detectives put together videos to follow two men allegedly involved in the Smollett attack, Task Force Looting detectives followed the suspects as they moved from store to store.
“We would have someone (a detective) saying, ‘Do you have a green car in this video? I also have a green car in this video, ”Deenihan said.
The investigation was made more difficult because many suspects do not have a criminal history and, as a result, the police do not have a photo of them.
For many, it appears to have been a crime of expediency, said Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office is pursuing cases.
“They saw what was going on and were counting on the number (of people) to be able to get away with it,” she says.
Julisa Foster, a 25-year-old woman awaiting trial on charges of burglary and looting, has been arrested by police at a store.
“There was no Target anymore with the televisions and I’m thinking about buying food for my baby, not thinking about what was going on around me,” Foster said. “The first thing I saw was baby clothes (so) all I got was baby clothes. “
For many other arrests, the police needed the public’s help. In Chicago, where suspicion of a police force with a history of racism and brutality has left many residents reluctant to help detectives solve anything other than the most heinous crimes, it is no small feat. But the police actually found plenty of people willing to help.
“Tips were more common than you might think,” Sgt. Said Alex Wolinski.
Foxx said many residents were scared and angry. Shops in the city – fearing that they would be targeted – have closed, preventing people from obtaining food or medicine. And many quickly concluded that the crimes had nothing to do with Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
“People were like, ‘What does George Floyd have to do with breaking into Macy’s? Foxx said.
Reverend Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and prominent activist on the south side of town, believes some of the crimes stem from anger. But he said, “It bothered so many people because their stores closed and people were like, ‘Oh my God, where can I get my prescriptions now? (And) they were outraged about it.
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