Gangs Plotting To Shoot Cops, CPD Warns Officers: Report
(STMW) -- Leaders from three West Side gang factions met last week to discuss plans to shoot members of the Chicago Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Paul O'Neal, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
The meeting took place Thursday between higher ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.
The Four Corner Hustlers "provided guns" and have "a sniper in place" though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers are also supplying the other two gangs with weapons that all three factions have also agreed to use against police, the alert states.
The three gangs are located primarily in the Austin and Harrison districts, which cover much of the West Side.
In an email Monday afternoon, department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "To safeguard the integrity of operations, the department does not comment on any security measures."
According to police sources, department members have also been advised to "limit interactions and visibility."
The agreement between the three gangs comes in response to the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Paul O'Neal.
Police chased O'Neal into the South Shore neighborhood around 7:30 p.m. July 28 after he allegedly stole a Jaguar from southwest suburban Bolingbrook.
Video released last week showed a chaotic scene leading up to O'Neal's death, with him being handcuffed in a growing pool of his blood.
The body camera of the officer who fired the deadly shot wasn't recording, police said, and the Independent Police Review Authority has said there is no other camera angle that shows the fatal shot.
Three officers involved in the shooting were stripped of their police powers by Supt. Eddie Johnson.
The release of the video prompted a new wave of protests in downtown Chicago over the weekend, and one elected official — County Commissioner Richard Boykin — called it a "police execution" and demanded the officers be fired.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire copy; Chicago Sun-Times 2016. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
