Who Got Arrested During Weekend Looting In Chicago?

CHICAGO — Cook County prosecutors described chaotic scenes of gunfire and looting as some of the nearly 700 people arrested by Chicago police Sunday appeared before a judge during a marathon bond hearing. One after another, Circuit Judge John Lyke listened as prosecutors provided police officers' accounts of how the hundreds of detainees wound up in custody.

Virtually every felony charge was related to the widespread looting that began Saturday in the Magnificent Mile and River North and spread Sunday to the South and West sides after Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the greater downtown cordoned off to visitors — effectively creating a "Green Zone" around the Loop and some of the cities' wealthiest residential neighborhoods.

Many of the dozens of incidents recounted by authorities during the roughly nine-hour hearing predated the downtown closure. Here are a few of the incidents described by state's and defense attorneys at the bond hearing.

At 12:30 a.m. Sunday, a few hours after Lightfoot declared a citywide curfew, police encountered a trio of men at the BP gas station at 1221 S. Wabash Ave. and informed them of the curfew, prosecutors told the judge. They laughed off the officers and began taunting them, according to the police version of the encounter.

Prosecutors told the judge one man — a 25-year-old St. Peters, Missouri, resident who identified himself as a self-employed clothing designer — told officers "they could not catch him." Officers "gave chase and did, in fact, catch the defendant," prosecutors said. It turned out the man is also wanted on a non-extraditable warrant from Los Angeles County connected to a robbery charge. The judge was unimpressed by the man's lack of financial preparedness and inability to post cash bond.

"If I'm going to be doing some nonsense, I'm going to have bond money," Lyke said, noting if the man had been paying attention to the mayor, he would have avoided arrest. "He must be the slow one because they caught him. He must not be as fast as the other two." The judge allowed the man to speak on his behalf over the objection of the public defender. He claimed he was unaware of the curfew, unaware the gun he was carrying was stolen and had been in the downtown area to pick up his mother. Lyke noted he had just confessed on the record to the illegal gun possession charge and advised him to listen to his attorney in the future.

A 32-year-old Joliet Junior College alum wanted in Georgia and Texas on non-extraditable warrants was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning and charged with burglary and looting at the clothing store Zumiez, 2 S. State St., according to prosecutors.

Officers reported finding him hiding inside after warning they would release police dogs into the looted store. According to prosecutors, surveillance video shows him filling up a stolen backpack with various pieces of clothing and seven watches. They said he told police "it was the heat of the moment," and that he "saw a broken window and went inside." The judge emphasized the fact was already out on bond for a DUI charge at the time of his arrest and set a bond requiring the man to post $1,500 cash.

"He was told to stay out of trouble,"Lyke said. "He basically thumbed his nose at that previous judge."

A notable number of those arrested had Indiana home addresses. As of Monday evening, the precise number of Indiana residents among those charged with felonies was not available from the Chicago Police Department or the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. But, of the 64 illegally possessed firearms Lightfoot said police seized Sunday, more than a handful were taken from Indianans.

One, a man arrested around 5:30 p.m. Saturday after officers found him wielding a metal pole and smashing a window to an Ann Taylor store at 12 N. Wabash Ave., was found with a gun but only charged with criminal damage to property. He had a valid license for the gun in Indiana but not Illinois, prosecutors said.

Three guns were found on a 19-year-old and 20-year-old from Lake County, Indiana, after a security guard near Federal Plaza in the 200 block of Dearborn Street reported them to police. One, a 2019 high school graduate, claimed he could legally carry the gun in Indiana. The other, a stocker for Walmart who had never been arrested before, said he needed to carry the gun for protection.

Another, a 41-year-old Lafayette, Indiana, man was arrested around 4 p.m. Sunday in a strip mall in the 5200 block of South Pulaski Road before picking up a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to prosecutors. Police reported seeing him on the sidewalk carrying several beauty supply items. He dropped the apparently stolen items when he noticed the arresting officers, who approached him and found a black pistol with an extended magazine he lifted his shirt and reached for, according to police.

"I'm a good guy," prosecutors said he told officers after being advised of his right to remain silent. "But you think I'm going to come to Chicago and do all this s--- and not have my gun on me?"

A 21-year-old man was arrested around 3:30 a.m. Sunday breaking windows of a jewelry store in the 4600 block of Kedzie Avenue and stealing items from inside before fleeing upon officers' arrival, according to prosecutors.

A 36-year-old licensed gun owner was arrested around 9:30 p.m. Sunday after patrolling officers heard numerous gunshots at the scene of looting at the Dollar General, 5018 S. Cicero Ave. They found the man on West 50th Street walking down the sidewalk with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle with an extended magazine, prosecutors said. He allegedly admitted firing shots into the ground.

"Things could have got bad in a hurry with all that weaponry he had on him," the judge said.

Two men were arrested after a brief chase and crash that began when officers noticed a passenger waving a gun around inside a car, prosecutors said. Another pair was allegedly charged after running away from a minivan that had just been stolen from a dealership.

A 22-year-old mom who works full-time as a security guard at Menards was arrested and charged with looting TVs from the Best Buy store at 555 West Roosevelt Road. Two men who were with her fled, prosecutors said. A pregnant 23-year-old woman who works at a dollar store and chicken restaurant was arrested after a call of an ATM machine being looted in the 11100 block of South Michigan.

And a 35-year-old Chicago State University graduate and aspiring lawyer whose attorney said he ying for the LSAT was charged with burglary and looting after police allegedly found him carrying a bag of stolen goods out of Macy's at 111 N. State St. Saturday night.

"If you want to go to law school, you can't get caught up in this," Lyke said. The judge told the Lawndale resident he would have to make better decisions to have any chance meeting the standard of "fit and proper" required of attorneys. "You can go all the way through all school and never practice law a day in your life," he warned.

Most defendants told the court they were unable to come up with more than $200 for cash bond money.

No records on the night's arrests were available from the Cook County Circuit Clerk's Office following Monday's bond hearing.

Court records from the clerk's office have become less accessible to the public since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic. Although the clerk's office maintains an electronic record-keeping system that could allow the public remote access to criminal court records, access is restricted to county employees. Instead, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's office charges members of the public a $6 "search fee" and as much as $3 per page for digital copies of documents, while in-person services are not available without an appointment.