WASHINGTON (US) – As the federal government intervened to prevent a surge in violent crime in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday urged witnesses to come forward with information regarding a shooting at a funeral and of a toddler.
Following the mayor’s plea for an end to gang violence, President Donald Trump said that hundreds of officers from the FBI and other agencies would be roped in to prosecute criminals in the city.
This came after a night of unbridled violence in the Chicago, which included the shooting by gangsters at a funeral that left 15 wounded and the shooting and wounding of a three-year-old girl.
Targeting cities under the control of Democrats, Trump is mulling to promote a law-and-order message ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential polls. Critics blame the administration for trying to divert attention away from its response to the handling of the pandemic, which was criticised. This caused Trump’s ratings to fall.
During a press briefing, the president slammed Chicago politicians for “deadly” soft-on-crime policies and referred to the recent outbreak of violence.
“For those people in Chicago and other cities where we’ll be: Help is on its way,” he said.
The Mayor’s office said in a statement the the president had a short conversation with Lightfoot on Wednesday evening to discuss the deployment of law enforcement officers. The statement said the federal deployment would be “investigatory in nature” and will be coordinated through the office of John Lausch, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
“The mayor has made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect Chicagoans,” the Mayor’s office said.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field