Seeking the public’s help in identifying more looting suspects, the Chicago Police Department Wednesday launched a new web portal that will feature additional video footage of the widespread theft and property damage that overtook the downtown area and other neighborhoods earlier this week.
More than 20 people have been charged so far in connection with the looting and destruction that started late Sunday night and continued early Monday morning.
The new portal will be continuously updated as additional footage and charging information comes in to police. Local business owners and area residents can also submit their own video footage to police through the portal. The site is operated by CPD detectives who are assigned to a new task force dedicated to the looting.
One of the videos already posted was recorded on a suspect’s own cellphone. The video shows two men, whose faces are clearly visible, attempting to break into an ATM.
“Detectives are asking everyone to look at these images,” CPD Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said Wednesday. “This was just an attack on our city and we really need everyone’s help to identify these offenders so we can arrest and charge them.”
Police officials have said the gunfire and widespread looting downtown was spurred, in part, by misinformation and rumormongering about the circumstances of a police shooting in Englewood Sunday afternoon.
Officers shot 20-year-old Latrell Allen after, according to CPD, Allen fired at police near 57th Street and Racine Avenue.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency that investigates uses of force by CPD officers, issued a statement Monday saying that its preliminary investigation so far supports the CPD’s version of events.
Allen, who lives near where he was shot, was charged Monday with two counts of attempted murder and another count of unlawfully possessing a weapon. He remains hospitalized.
A handgun was recovered at the scene of the shooting, and police officials Wednesday said an additional shotgun was found during a subsequent search of Allen’s home.
