An unidentified homicide suspect who shot a man dead in broad daylight on a Chicago street while brandishing a long gun remains at large more than two years after the killing — and police only just released the video Friday.
The footage shows a man running across a street in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood, through a puddle and down a sidewalk, before firing shots and fleeing. The shooting occurred at 10:41 a.m. on May 3, 2022, on the 3700 block of West Chicago Avenue, according to NBC 5 Chicago.
NBC 5 reported that it was "not immediately clear why police waited several years to release the video." That question demands an answer. A killer has walked free for over two years while evidence that could identify him sat in a police file.
This is what the soft-on-crime ecosystem produces. When violent offenders face no swift consequences, when prosecutors decline to charge or judges release defendants back to the street, the predictable result is more violence — and more unsolved cases piling up while families wait for justice.
The Chicago case isn't isolated. In Kalamazoo County, Michigan, new police video obtained by MLive through a Freedom of Information Act request shows a July 17 incident where a routine larceny call turned violent. Jaylen Lipsey, confronted by a deputy investigating a theft from a vehicle, told the officer "Bro, I'm not breaking the law" repeatedly before fleeing, then grappling with the deputy. Lipsey allegedly used the deputy's own gun to shoot him in the leg before stealing the cruiser and leading police on a multi-jurisdiction chase that ended in a crash.
Lipsey now faces assault with intent to murder, carjacking, and a dozen other counts. The deputy, Kaleb Mortimer, was released from the hospital. But the question lingers: how does a larceny call escalate to a deputy shot with his own weapon and a stolen police cruiser barreling down a highway?
In Chicago, police are asking anyone with information to call detectives at 312-746-8252 or submit an anonymous tip at CPDTIP.com using reference number JF228530.
The suspect in the 2022 Humboldt Park killing has had over two years to disappear. Every day that passes without accountability for violent crime sends a message — to criminals, that the system is weak; to citizens, that they're on their own.
The question isn't whether progressive policies produce this outcome. The question is how many more videos will sit on shelves while killers walk free before something changes.
