A man was found shot and killed early Thursday morning at a West Loop block that’s sparked political controversy amid a debate over safety.
Officers responded to the intersection of North Clinton Street and West Lake Street at 12:50 a.m. and found an unresponsive man shot in the chest. He was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition and later pronounced dead, police said.
The 59-year-old man has not yet been publicly identified, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
According to Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, initial information his office received suggests Thursday’s fatal shooting was linked to an argument involving drugs. The Chicago Police Department did not describe drug involvement in its initial statement on the shooting. Detectives are investigating, police said.
[ Man with gun, $60,000 worth of drugs arrested at contentious West Loop encampment, police say ]
“Based on the clear trajectory of violent crime in the area, this tragic fatal shooting was inevitable and likely avoidable,” Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, said in a statement Thursday morning.
The block is one of several locations under downtown viaducts at which tents where people sleep have lined the sidewalk. Conway said earlier this year the encampments had become dangerous and began efforts to remove them.
Last week, a 19-year-old man was arrested with an estimated $60,000 in drugs and a gun last Thursday on the same block, the 500 block of West Lake Street, according to police.
When Conway sought the support of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, top Johnson adviser Jason Lee tied an offer to help to Conway’s votes on the approval of a referendum for an increased real estate transfer tax on properties over $1 million to help fund citywide homeless services and an ordinance ending subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers, Conway told the Tribune in mid-November.
Lee acknowledged linking the issue of the camps with votes for the marquee Johnson policies, but defended it as an appropriate deal and said police would continue to respond to the encampments
“It’s a pretty standard conversation about how legislation and policy interacts and how political will is created,” Lee said. “Obviously we wanted Ald. Conway to support that agenda and explain to him the linkage between the two.”
The day after the Tribune first reported the interaction, Johnson deflected questions about it, then described Conway’s accusations as “a mischaracterization” and said “pushing for real support around the unhoused (is) what this has always been about.”
Around 1,500 area residents signed a petition calling for the mayor’s office to remove tents from the area’s sidewalks in mid-November, citing safety issues. Last Friday, the mayor’s office responded to the petition, stating its goals to reduce unsheltered homelessness, ensure public safety at encampments and prevent them from growing.
“Homelessness is not illegal and our assistance is not enforcement-based, though we partner with the Chicago Police Department and they may address criminal activity at encampment locations including this location,” said the letter, signed by Deputy Mayors Jennifer Johnson and Garien Gatewood.
“We strive to balance the rights and safety of all residents regardless of their housing status,” the letter continued.
The letter, shared with the Tribune by Conway’s office, also detailed efforts to connect unhoused people to shelter and said the city has removed 11 tents at the site since July, including five removals between September and October related to “public safety issues.”
In his statement Thursday, Conway said he had tried for months to convince the mayor’s office the encampments in the area had changed from peaceful to “a magnet for violent crime and drugs.”
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“It shouldn’t have come to this, but it was eminently foreseeable that someone was going to get killed,” he said. “Any number of recent events, including last Friday’s major arrest, should have been sufficient to warrant their response.”
At least four armed robberies and four shootings have occurred near the camps since early October, according to Conway’s office. Conway had first focused on tents near Union and Ogilvie stations.
Conway had been working with City Hall departments, including Streets and Sanitation and Family and Support Services, to address the homeless camps under the viaducts but said he recently learned plans to remove tents were canceled by the mayor’s office in October. City officials disputed that there were final plans in place.
Conway previously said he referred the matter to the city Inspector General’s Office.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.