Chicago – The Chicago Police Chief of Patrol allegedly banned officers from assisting federal officers who were being surrounded by a large crowd in Brighton Park on Saturday.
CWB Chicago reported that CPD Chief of Patrol Jon Hein ordered city officers to leave the area as tensions escalated following the shooting of a woman by Border Patrol agents, supervisors said in recorded radio traffic.
On Saturday morning, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot an armed woman in Chicago after an angry mob tried to attack the officers. The group of agents were conducting routine patrol near 39th Place and South Kedzie Avenue in the city’s South Side “when they were attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,” DHS said.
“The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively,” according to DHS, which called the incident “an evolving situation” and noted FBI agents were currently on the scene.
On Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security identified the woman as Marimar Martinez, saying she “was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxxing federal agents. She took defensive fire from CBP agents and has been discharged from the hospital and is currently in the custody of the FBI.”
Protests erupted in the area shortly after the shooting.
Video circulating on social media showed an SUV repeatedly ramming the rear of an unmarked Border Patrol pickup truck as the vehicles traveled south on Kedzie Avenue near 36th Place. The truck’s emergency lights were activated as the black SUV struck its bumper multiple times. Both vehicles then sped south in the opposite lane of traffic.
At about 11:30 a.m., a CPD supervisor in the Deering (9th) District instructed dispatchers to “clear up” all of the city’s police units from the shooting investigation and turn the scene over to federal authorities.
“That’s per the chief,” the supervisor said.
“That’s per the chief of what? ICE?” a dispatcher asked.
“Chief of patrol, squad,” the supervisor replied, referring to CPD Chief of Patrol Jon Hein.
The supervisor noted that one CPD unit would remain on scene to document a traffic crash connected to the incident. A firearm was recovered inside that vehicle.
“And if she needs help, we absolutely help our own, alright?” the supervisor added. “If you need resources, we’ll send you whatever you need.”
Shortly before noon, the supervisor updated dispatch: “Yeah, per the Chief of Patrol, we have all pulled out. All CPD resources are clear from the scene on California as well as Kedzie.”
Just 30 minutes later, federal agents asked CPD for help near 39th Place and Kedzie.
A dispatcher relayed that an agent said “he’s one of about 30 armed Border Patrol agents, ICE. They’re being surrounded by a large crowd of people [and he is] requesting CPD. They don’t see any weapons in the crowd.”
“If you guys can immediately head down to 39th Place and Kedzie, please, and go assist them,” the dispatcher urged units leaving the station. “I’m looking on the [cameras], and there are lots of cars.”
The CPD units responded but, per supervisory orders, stopped a couple of blocks short of where the agents said they were being surrounded. About five minutes later, they were told to leave.
“Just to confirm,” a dispatcher asked, “they were saying that they were being surrounded by that large crowd and they were requesting the police and we’re not sending?”
“Again, those are the orders we’re being given,” the supervisor replied.
Saturday’s shooting marked at least the second time this week that CPD supervisors directed officers to avoid federal enforcement actions involving ICE. On Wednesday, after Border Patrol agents detained a man at the scene of a West Side traffic crash, CPD officers initially responded but were later told to steer clear.
Dr. Travis Yates, author of The Courageous Police Leader, says the alleged actions by CPD Leadership represent everything that is wrong about law enforcement today. Yates said that, despite anyone’s personal feelings about the Department of Homeland Security, they are enforcing the very laws that Congress has given them to enforce. He calls the actions by Chicago leaders not only horrific but also dangerous to law enforcement and the public.
“The rhetoric and bashing of federal officers by Chicago leaders, combined with law enforcement leadership neglecting their own core mission of safety, is creating an environment where violence is supreme,” Yates said.
Yates said that he never thought he would see a day when one law enforcement agency would refuse to help another agency in a life-and-death incident.
Then again, this is Chicago.
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