Charges won’t be filed against a person in the fatal beating of a man who allegedly tried to rob the person last year during summer looting in Chicago.
Prosecutors declined to charge a suspect, citing self-defense, in the June 5 attack, according to an email from police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli. Police closed their investigation.
The Chicago Tribune first reported that charges were declined on March 25.
Laronzo Thomas, 41, died June 5 of complications from the assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.
According to a police source, Thomas was injured while he and another person tried to rob someone during civil unrest and rioting in the 5900 block of West Roosevelt Road on the West Side.
Thomas was struck in the abdomen with a blunt object on June 2 in the attack, Bartoli said. Initially hospitalized, he was released and then found dead inside a home three days later on June 5, police said.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said the office, “concluded that the totality of the evidence was insufficient to sustain our burden of proof and we declined to file charges.”
