CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A Chicago alderman says he’s outraged that the suspect in yesterday’s police killing was out on the street at all.
15th Ward Alderman Ray Lopez says the 18-year old man in custody is a known gang-banger who, Lopez believes, should have been behind bars at the time he was allegedly shooting Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso.
“I’m outraged to find out that this officer’s killer was in custody for (unintelligible) in a stolen vehicle with guns trying to recruit a 15-year old to a gang-initiated murder less than a year ago and charges were reduced, and he was back out on the street,”
Ald. Lopez says he’s convinced that, if more serious charges had been leveled against the suspect, Officer Vasquez-Lasso would be alive today.
“I am convinced that if he and the other two individuals had been charged as a group for what they were trying to do as opposed to simply just having a stolen vehicle while putting the gun charge on the 15-year old minor he was trying to recruit to shoot and kill someone else, he would not be on the street right now,” the alderman says.
The State’s Attorney’s Office says the suspect was a first-time offender and was caught running from a car stopped by police in July 2022 and was charged with a misdemeanor. The State’s Attorney’s Office says the suspect was ordered to and completed 25 hours of community service and that the case was closed in November.
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The driver of the car the suspect had been with was charged with felony gun possession.
Still, Ald. Lopez says State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her team have set such a high bar for what would be considered felony charges that criminals know they can get away with their wrongdoing.
The alderman says he didn’t know Officer Vasquez-Lasso but had met him once. Ald. Lopez says he’s saddened and hurt by the officer’s death.
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