Father Michael Pfleger took the Chicago police during his sermon on Sunday, a day after armed men opened the fire on hundreds of people who had gathered at the weekend for a post-Prom party near St. Sabina Church.
“The police were great,” Pleger told his parishioners. “Nobody like the 6th district.”
For decades, Pleger has been pronounced on the street violence of the city. His parish often houses the deployment events of weapons and peace marches. On Sunday he spoke about the incident that took place just outside the church site, early on Saturday.
He said he saw that hundreds of young people gathered on Friday around 11.30 pm outside the church on 78th Street, and someone in the crowd told him it was an after-promom event. After he went to bed, the Chicago police received a tip that some people in the crowd might have been armed, Pleger said. CPD sent units to the scene to spread the crowd around 12.30 pm
For more than an hour, the police have been trying to cross the crowd to leave, but had little success. Pleger praised the efforts of the CPD to spread the meeting and noted that officers did not use violence and instead tried to convince the group to go home.
“Everyone operated in excellence,” said Pleger.
Video that is shared online showed hundreds of people collected at the intersection, on the street, on sidewalks and in a nearby parking space.
Only a few minutes before the gunfire, at 1:44 am, lost a CPD Supervisor patience.
“No more breaks. No more something. Is she locking them up,” he instructed the officers on their radios. “She is no longer well asked. That is done. We are over there. They just stare at you with your lights and just don’t give up at the moment.”
Pleger said the gunfire was shocked just before 2 hours of sleep
“While they spread people, with police cars and blue lights glowed, a car 78th Street drove off. Four people shot from all four windows on this huge crowd of a few hundred young people,” Pleger said Sunday. “Then some people started shooting back in the crowd.”
“The fact that only seven people were shot is a miracle,” he told the parish. “And the fact that nobody died is nothing but God.”
He has credited the police with possibly preventing fatalities.
“One of the people who was shot was seriously injured and the police didn’t even wait for the ambulance,” he revealed during his sermon on Sunday. “They picked up the person, took them to the hospital and perhaps saved their lives.”
Parishioners applauded.
Pleger also announced a reward of $ 10,000 for information that led to the arrest of the shooters.
Online he called for better supervision of the parents.
“This raises a painful and urgent question: his parents equipped for the most important job – our children in a time like this … Even good children are sometimes confronted with bad situations. But it is unacceptable that our childhood is out at 2 o’clock in the morning,” he wrote.
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