Samantha Malone
In June, 25-year-old Raven Lemons was the first homicide victim of the downtown Chicago area this year.
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The Ohio Street underpass where he was murdered has been closed in the interest of public safety ever since.
Connecting the 500 block of East Ohio Street to the lakefront, the underpass is already locked, and will remain closed to the public through at least October at this time.
Notably, however, the underpass was locked without the approval of the City Council.
According to DNAinfo, this is because 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly went directly to Mayor Rahm Emanuel himself for permission, eliminating the need for a vote.
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Reilly said closing the underpass will help officers who patrol downtown monitor the area from Oak Street Beach to Navy Pier more easily at night because they are already “spread quite thin.”
“This is the right course of action,” Reilly said further. “This will help the police stretch their resources.”
Moving forward with the closure without a City Council vote came after 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale expressed his opinion against closing the underpass, calling the plan an overreaction and an unnecessary effort by authorities to make it appear as though they are taking action.
He said officials are too eager to act “because someone got murdered Downtown, and officials need to be seen as ‘oh, we are doing something,’ ” according to DNAinfo.
Mayor Emanuel responded to this with spokesman Matt McGrath, saying the mayor’s office “always partner[s] with aldermen and community leaders when serious public safety concerns are raised.”
The Chicago Police Department yet to respond to Reilly’s request for patrols to be added near where Lemons was shot at around 2:40 a.m. on Father’s Day.
