Access to downtown will be “restricted” from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., effective Monday night after crowds broke windows and looted stores along Michigan Avenue and on the Near North Side overnight, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said.
Two people were shot, more than 100 people were arrested and 13 police officers were injured in the chaos that erupted in the city’s central business district Sunday night and into Monday morning.
“A heavy police presence will continue throughout the downtown area today, and until further notice,” Brown said at a Monday morning press conference.
“The department also has its eyes on the neighborhoods to ensure that looting does not spread,” Brown said, adding that officers will be deployed “in a large measure to our neighborhoods to protect the neighborhoods.”
To support the additional deployment of police across the city, Brown said officers will return to working 12-hour shifts, and all days off have been canceled until further notice.
Chief Judge Timothy Evans ordered all Cook County courts in downtown Chicago closed Monday due to restricted access to the area. Bond courts at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, the Domestic Violence Courthouse, the Juvenile Justice Division and the suburban municipal district courthouses will remain open.
All non-bond cases scheduled for Monday will be continued for 30 days and affected parties will be notified of their new court dates, according to the chief justice’s office.
Federal court in Chicago was closed as well.
For several hours Monday morning, bus and train service was suspended in the area bordered by Fullerton and Ashland avenues and Cermak Road, the CTA said. All downtown bridges except the one at LaSalle Street were raised.
Later Monday morning, CTA service was restored and the bridges were lowered, but ongoing street closures could be expected throughout downtown, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.
