Chicago police boss David Brown’s time in Dallas included defusing a tense city after a police shooting, something he did not repeat Sunday

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown has explained how alleged misinformation about an officer-involved shooting in the South Side’s Englewood neighborhood on Sunday may have sparked a chain of events that led to widespread looting, vandalism and violence in the downtown area.

But as the former leader of another big-city police department, it was not a scenario Brown was completely unfamiliar with.

In his 2017 autobiography, he described a similar situation that unfolded when he was the Dallas police chief in 2012, when one of his officers shot and killed 31-year-old James Harper, a reputed drug dealer in that city’s Dixon Circle community.

The shooting occurred when officers responding to a 911 call about a possible kidnapping found a group of people in the living room of a house, along with narcotics and a gun. Among those in the group was Harper, who went by the street name “G-Code.”

The group tried to flee, and someone from the group grabbed the gun. Unsure who took the weapon, officers chased the group. And after a confrontation with an officer, Harper, who was Black, was shot and killed by a white cop in a nearby barn.

As the day went on, a crowd formed in the neighborhood. Tensions flared. A rumor circulated through social media that the officer had shot an unarmed Harper in the back during a foot chase.

As he recounted in his book, “Called to Rise: A Life in Faithful Service to the Community That Made Me” (co-written by journalist Michelle Burford), Brown said he knew he’d have to make a public statement to set the record straight with the facts police had, albeit preliminary information, to try and defuse the situation.

Among the details he released: the identities of the officer, Brian Rowden, and Harper; the revelation that the 911 call was a false kidnapping report; that Harper was unarmed; and that he appeared to have been shot in the stomach, not in the back.

“This was Dixon Circle we were talking about — a neighborhood with a history of heated reactions in the face of racially charged incidents,” Brown wrote.

After Brown talked to reporters, the crowd broke up, he recalled. There was no one hurt, and no property damage.

“If I waited two weeks to speak up, the city might be burned down by then,” Brown said in his book.

On Sunday, Chicago’s officials have said, rumors on social media about a shooting in Englewood may have touched off a series of events that led to looting in the downtown area that night. Its possible link to the looting was still being investigated this week.

"There is a false rumor on social media that police officers killed a 15-year-old on Sunday," Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted on Monday.

"Here are the facts: - Officers responded to 911 calls about an armed man in Englewood - A 20-year-old suspect fired at officers, gunfire was exchanged - The suspect is in stable condition."

Brown took it a step further at a morning news conference, appearing to tie erroneous details about the shooting with the looting.

"Tempers flared, fueled by misinformation as the afternoon turned into evening," said Brown. "CPD became aware of several social media posts encouraging looting downtown."

Police have said the person shot was actually 20-year-old Latrell Allen from the neighborhood, and that he fired at police first. The officers involved were from the new Community Safety Team and were not wearing body cameras, leaving police unable to fully corroborate that account.

Allen has been charged with attempted murder.

Unlike 2012 in Dixon Circle, it wasn’t Brown who had sought to set the record straight immediately after the shooting. He left that to one of his deputy chiefs, Yolanda Talley, who used a news conference to address what police said were false rumors, including that a much younger person had been shot.

“And then after some tense moments the crowd did disperse and wane,” Brown said during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, responding to a question about how events unfolded, and the differences between what happened to him in 2012.

While Brown said he does believe some circulating misinformation helped spark the problems, he also noted today’s America is much different from the one he experienced earlier in Dallas.

“I would say a lot of things are different. There wasn’t a pandemic in 2012. There wasn’t a George Floyd videotape in 2012. There wasn’t this divisiveness that we see in this country in 2012, nor (was) there unprecedented violence … in 2012,” Brown said. “So there is several layers of differences that I think we all know, but I just want to remind you, you know, pandemic is a big deal, global economic recession is a big deal, civil unrest, George Floyd’s a big deal, and so it’s, no small thing that’s different today than there was in 2012.”

Many of those who eventually ransacked stores arrived in caravans, according to officials. About 100 people were arrested in connection with the unrest and 13 police officers were hurt. It was not clear how many of those charged might have been from Englewood, or whether others from different neighborhoods and the suburbs took advantage of the tension.

And regardless of what misinformation might have circulated, some activists still faulted authorities.

Black Lives Matter Chicago decried Allen’s wounding as the latest example of Chicago police wrongfully shooting a Black man in the city, and criticized Lightfoot’s reaction to it during a Monday morning news conference.

The organization said Lightfoot ought to know better following bouts of looting and other unrest in Chicago in late May as part of the aftermath of Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minnesota.

“In a predictable and unfortunate move, she did not take this time to criticize her officers for shooting yet another Black man,” Black Lives Matter Chicago said Monday in a statement.

For their part, Brown and Lightfoot suggested lax treatment by prosecutors and the courts of those who damaged stores in the first round of unrest may have contributed to Sunday night’s violence. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx countered that her office has fully prosecuted cases connected to looting.

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