The worst night of unrest in Chicago since police brutality protests in late May began with warnings of planned looting following an afternoon incident in which police shot and wounded a man who they said fired at them first, the Chicago Tribune reports. That Sunday afternoon incident in Englewood attracted an angry crowd, a massive police response, and social media outbursts that spread a plan to loot in the city’s shopping district, the Magnificent Mile.
Thousands flocked to the area after midnight, smashing store windows that had been repaired after unrest months earlier. Four hundred police officers rushed in, trying to chase looters away. For every person arrested, dozens more walked out of stores loaded with stolen goods. By sunrise, the city had lifted most downtown bridges to block access to the area. Police Superintendent David Brown said officers arrested more than 100 people while 13 officers were injured and two people were shot. He called the violence “pure criminality” rather than any sort of organized response to perceived police misconduct. Police charged a 20-year-old man with attempted murder in the afternoon incident that marked the start of the unrest.