CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A young man has been charged with lighting a couch on fire in a Logan Square intersection early Thursday, following protests over the lack of charges in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
According to Chicago police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli, those were the only protest-related charges filed overnight.
Surveillance video allegedly shows 20-year-old Gavin J. Palm, of Albany Park, burning a couch shortly after midnight at an intersection in the 1900 block of North Western Avenue, the Sun-Times reported.
As officers confronted Palm, he ran away and dropped a backpack, which allegedly held a torch lighter and an illegal amount of drugs, police said.
Officers chased him on foot and found him hiding under a chair in a backyard in the 2400 block of West McLean Avenue.
Palm was arrested and charged with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, and a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct for endangering the safety of motorists and pedestrians in a roadway, Bartoli said.
She said olice received no reports of looting or burglary overnight connected to the protests.
Earlier Wednesday, several hundred people converged on nearby Palmer Square and Wicker Park to protest the lack of charges against the officers who fatally shot Taylor in March, the Sun-Times reported. Other protests were organized in Millennium Park and Auburn Gresham.
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In anticipation of civil unrest, Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent in the Illinois National Guard, which could be seen Wednesday patrolling streets.
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The city also deployed hundreds of city trucks a barriers to commercial corridors and the Chicago Police Department headquarters, the site of another protest that evening.
Wednesday afternoon, a Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong. Prosecutors said two officers who fired their weapons at Taylor were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her boyfriend. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor's with people inside.
The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in connection with the raid at Taylor's home on March 13.
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