CHICAGO — While protests against the killings of black people at the hands of police remained largely peaceful in Chicago Sunday, groups of looters targeted businesses in the city and across northeast Illinois throughout the day.
Malls across the region closed early amidst fears of potential looting, and there were problems reported at the Orland Square Mall in Orland Park, as well as the River Oaks shopping center in south suburban Calumet City.
According to North Riverside Police, officers also responded to North Riverside Park Mall after a group of individuals smashed out windows and began looting around 2 p.m. Sunday.
While the looting was ongoing at the mall, which was closed at the time, an individual was shot in a parking lot outside a nearby Olive Garden. They’re currently hospitalized, police said, and it’s not clear how it was connected to the mischief in the mall.
Over the course of “several hours” police were able to disperse the looters.
In Lombard, looters were seen stuffing what looks like a flat screen TV into their trunk. In North Riverside, another Best Buy was also hit. The looters left in such a hurry, a TV was left behind.
Looters broke into a Binny’s at 95th and Trumbull, breaking glass and bending back a security gate. A half mile east in Berwyn, one witness described the scene as an organized band of looters broke into a jewelry store.
“It was very scary – I live a block away. My kids were there, they were scared,” Steven Roden said.
Looters also hit a CVS store in River Forest. And even as a WGN photographer recorded damage at a Boost Mobile store in Elmwood Park, more looters jumped through a window to steal more stuff.
Cook County Sheriff’s police have been backing up officers in the city and west and south suburbs.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart spoke to WGN News regarding the unrest: