Chicago alderman condemns fatal FBI shooting in Pilsen: 'Justice is not served in the streets'

The FBI says one of its agents shot and killed a man on Monday night in Pilsen. The agent saw the man firing into a homeless encampment. Yeah, the FBI is looking into all of this right now. Liz is here, joined by one city alderman taking issue with the agency investigating itself. Yeah, so we're going to be talking to him here because, you know, the agent was off-duty, apparently, and the man shot did not have legal status in the U.S., all of this according to the FBI. So, Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez is here with us now. Alderman, thanks for being here and joining us this morning. Thank you, Liz. Thank you for the invitation. Okay, so catch us up, especially for viewers at home who are like, okay, I've heard bits and pieces of this story. What do we know right now about this situation? So all we know at this point from the FBI is that there was an FBI agent on his way way home, from what we understand, that ended up in a shootout, according to the FBI, with someone on an e-bike. We know that there was nine shots, shot at this individual. He was pronounced dead yesterday, and a whole community in a very quiet block completely shocked and in commotion for what has happened. Okay, so do we know, from our sources, we had heard from Fox News that the person was firing shots into a homeless encampment. Have you heard that at all? Well, this is where it gets inconsistent, right? The alleged shooting has no witnesses. There was no witnesses. In fact, the encampment, if there was any shooting happening to the encampment, was never touched by the FBI until 11.30 p.m., hours later. That same encampment was cleared up. And if there was any evidence of a shooting there, I would understand that caskets will have to be recovered. All the caskets, all the investigation pointed at the street shooting in front of 17th Place and Union. The encampment was cleared up. So if there was such a thing, where are the witnesses and where is the evidence? So that's what I have called on an independent investigation by the Attorney General, the State's Attorney, and also to make sure that the Chicago Police Department protects all evidence, all video camera, all video footage, all the video of this moment when you can hear the agent in some of the videos by neighbors talking about a gun. Was the gun discovered? What was the video footage of that interaction with the Chicago Police Department and the FBI? Okay, so actually, that's part of what you just said is part of what I wanted to ask you here. The agency's saying that the FBI's inspection division is reviewing the shooting, but you've recently come out and said that the FBI can't effectively investigate itself. So talk about what you feel, I mean, sounds like a conflict of interest to you here. Certainly. I think there's a conflict of interest and also there's inconsistencies. The agent said that, or allegedly saying that there was a shootout to a crowd. We have no witnesses of such shooting. We don't have any evidence. The encampment has been cleared up. We also don't have any evidence of the communications between, there was Chicago Police Department officers who very quickly came to the scene. We need to look at all the evidence. We want the state's attorney and the Attorney General to independently look at this. There's inconsistency in the version of the FBI and now more concerns about a second shooting involving another FBI agent in the suburbs of the Chicagoland area. So we definitely need an independent investigation. We cannot expect the FBI to investigate itself. Okay, you just mentioned a second shooting by the FBI. What can you tell us about that? This apparently was in the suburbs of Chicago, it was today apparently, there was another involved shooting. So this is a concern when we see lethal force used and also with very little information. So we will expect the State's Attorney and Attorney General to conduct independent investigation on the Chicago Police Department to protect all evidence so that we determine what actually happened here. Now, when it comes to this independent investigation that you're asking for, what What are the chances that you think that will happen? Look, I think that it is important that, again, we're seeing the actions of the federal government, the inconsistencies of the federal government. We cannot take the version of the FBI and the federal government at face value. When their lives that have been taken, When they were arrested, there were families, children in this area completely traumatized by such actions, we've never seen something like this. nine shots at an individual that was already on the ground. We demand that the FBI quickly explain the facts. I do know what the crowd was having, they are saying that there was a crowd. What was the crowd? Where are the witnesses? We have not seen any of it when we went to talk to the neighbors. Okay, so you haven't seen any of that at this point. You also mentioned, I believe you mentioned that the shooting also underlined the need for the city to reevaluate how it works and coordinates with these federal agencies. What are the red flags here that you are focused on? What do you think the city needs to change in your opinion? In my opinion, I do think it is important that our institutions operate always on behalf of our residents, our constituents. I do think that we cannot take the FBI at face value. I have my very big concerns about who is in charge of the FBI and the inconsistencies in that department. I do believe that it's important that we do not allow this evidence to be cleared out. The scene was completely cleared out the following day. We need to protect the evidence. We need to protect witnesses. We need to make sure that we conduct our own investigations, especially when there's such inconsistencies and gaps on the story that are treated as facts. We need to make sure that we don't allow 48 hours complete jurisdiction control over the scene without understanding what the evidence, what the testimonies and the witnesses I do need to, we need to re-evaluate how we cooperate with these federal agencies when there's such inconsistencies and danger to our constituents and the public. It was irresponsible, and they're very dangerous, what happened. And I'm very concerned about what happened again today. Now second FBI agent involved in a shooting, one of them already with a person dead. The information that we had gotten said that the suspect that was shot was an undocumented An immigrant, did not have legal status, was here from Venezuela. Can you talk about more on how that is part of the narrative? Because that is not a detail that you had shared with us, that we had heard from the FBI. Talk about how that factors into this story. Well, absolutely. I think that we had to wait for hours after the FBI released the information about the identity of the person who was shot. We do know by where he was a resident in one of the shelters in the Pacific Garden, and we got testimony about, you know, not having someone who shown any kind of violent behavior. We do know that he was detained by security guards by theft, so he had a record. I do think that there is the due process for anything that demands accountability. But I don't think anyone, any human being deserves to be shot at nine times. I think that for that we have the courts, and I do think that we have a responsibility not to normalize such behavior and actions. That is not justice. There is a due process, and I do expect the federal government and any institution to respect the due process. is not served in the streets. We don't need cowboys coming in and serving justice on their own. We need institutions that have a due process, respect everyone's constitutional rights. And that's what I'm calling on our local institutions, the state, county, and city to do the due part to make sure that justice is served and that we don't allow this kind of lawless and violent behavior, especially when it comes to state, city, and federal government. We need to always respect the Constitution. I'm seriously concerned about what happened two days ago. Okay, and you had mentioned, because it said that officers had responded to this shooting in the evening around 5.30 or so in the evening. They found the FBI agent pointing his gun at that suspect here. But you said there was no witnesses or no witnesses that you have heard from just yet, because it does sound shock. I mean, I've been to Pilsen a lot. I mean, there's always people all over the place. That is interesting that there are no witnesses right now. So there's no witnesses of a crowd that receives any threats or shooting, right? And I know that the FBI mentioned about the encampment as being perhaps victims of this individual. But again, if there was such the case, that area should have been immediately protected. And I did not see that. It still sounds like there are still questions about what eventually led up to that shooting. Absolutely. That is key. I think that we do have witnesses of when the FBI agent came out of his vehicle and shot at someone who was already on the ground eight or nine times. There's witnesses of that, but we don't know what happened before that. And I think that is a fundamental part of the investigation, and that's why it needs to be independent. All right, Alderman Nisticchio-Lopez, thank you for joining us. and keep us posted. I know you're calling for this independent investigation and we would be very interested to see if that is something that you can get. Absolutely, thank you very much. Thank you, appreciate it. All right, so just talking to the alderman there, basically saying, how does this bureau effectively investigate himself or itself? I will be interested to see if there is an independent investigation opened up at this point, because I feel like that's a tough nut to crack if you're talking about a federal agency, but- Yeah, this is something that we've talked to people in the area about before. This is a story that Fox has covered. So we got a lot more information on our website. Liz, thank you so much. Yeah, and I believe that the other shooting he was talking about, I believe that's connected to the story, if I'm thinking right, is the story that Say is on today, where we're talking about that FBI. I believe that's the one that he's he's referring to.