The Chicago Police Department (CPD) released a man suspected of shooting a transgender person in the Little Village neighborhood because the victim refused to cooperate for fear of the shooter’s suspected ties to Venezuela’s dangerous El Tren de Aragua prison gang.
The transgender sex worker was shot several times in the groin and legs outside the VLive, a Little Village nightclub, on February 4, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The CPD eventually arrested “an illegal migrant from Venezuela” for the shooting and found that federal authorities had identified him as a cartel member. The CPD took him into custody on February 26.
Investigators had serious evidence that he was the shooter, including video of the car he used after the shooting and shell casings that matched the caliber of bullet used in the attack. Despite the convincing evidence, the Cook County prosecutor’s office decided not to file charges against the suspect.
According to the Sun-Times, that decision was made because the victim fears the shooter’s ties to the dangerous gang and has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
“Our one witness who can positively identify the gunman will not cooperate any further,” a CPD report states, the paper said.
Baltazar Enriquez, a community organizer in the Little Village area, laments that prosecution of crimes like these is falling apart at an increasing rate as citizens walk the streets in fear of the Venezuelan gang’s growing influence.
“That has been a problem in our community because the members feel re-victimized,” Enriquez said of the many cases that have been dismissed. “Because now, they don’t have a family member and the aggressor is out on the streets.”
The brass at CPD has warned officers to be extra careful on the streets as the fear of El Tren de Aragua grows in the Windy City. In November, for instance, CPD leaders told officers to keep an eye out for telltale tattoos and other evidence of gang members among the wave of migrants swamping the city.
The gang has become a problem all across the country as millions of illegals, many from Venezuela, flood across President Joe Biden’s wide-open border. Several of the illegals who attacked members of the New York Police Department in broad daylight were identified as El Tren de Aragua members, for instance.
WATCH — I Thought This Was America?! Alleged Migrants Beat NYPD Officers
NYPD / BODY CAMS+ /TMXThe CPD has also reported a massive increase in the arrest of Venezuelan migrants for myriad crimes, including violent crimes and theft.
In January, the nearby Chicago suburb of Oak Brook reported that an organized gang of Venezuelans had been committing a rash of retail thefts across the city. In November, Chicago reported that arrests of Venezuelans were up 11,000 percent since 2021.
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