Comment on Lightfoot: Police shooting video ‘disturbing’

CHICAGO – Chicago’s mayor said video footage of police shooting and wounding a suspect inside a downtown Chicago train station is “extremely disturbing” and that she supports the interim police superintendent’s request for prosecutors to be sent directly to the scene – an unusual or perhaps unprecedented action in the nation’s third largest city. After watching what she called the “widely shared footage” of the Friday afternoon shooting inside the Red Line El station, Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted that although “one perspective does not depict the entirety of the incident, the video is extremely disturbing and the actions by these officers are deeply concerning.” “To ensure full transparency and accountability, I support Superintendent [Charlie] Beck’s decision to contact the state’s attorney due to the potential criminal nature of this incident,” she tweeted. Deputy Superintendent Barbara West told reporters Friday that the police department was conducting concurrent criminal and administrative investigations into the shooting. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Associated Press on Saturday that although Beck “doesn’t want to rush to judgment,” the cellphone footage that has been widely shared on social media and footage from Chicago Transit Authority cameras raises “significant tactical concerns” about the actions of the two officers who were involved.