A pair of videos allegedly shows Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson running away from reporters on Thursday to avoid being questioned regarding the tragic death of a police officer. The videos also allegedly show the mayor quickly leaving an event in a getaway car.
CBS reporter Darius Johnson shared a video in a post on X, formerly Twitter, claiming that the Chicago mayor was running away from him and another reporter as they tried to “ask him about the arrest in the death of Officer Luis Huesca.” The video shows reporters running after a man who appeared to be the city’s Democratic mayor.
“Mayor, we just want a comment about the arrest last night in relation to Officer Huesca,” the CBS reporter can be heard saying in the video. When the mayor allegedly drove away from the reporters, the CBS reporter added, “He just ran.”
Mary Ann Ahern, NBC 5’s chief political reporter, also shared a video on Thursday, claiming that the mayor “refused to take questions” when approached by the media.
In the video, Ahern can be heard asking the mayor, “Mr. Mayor! Mr. Mayor, will you please wait? Mr. Mayor! Mr. Mayor, why do you have to run from us? Why do you have to run from us Mr. Mayor?”
In response to the allegations that the Chicago mayor had attempted to avoid reporters by running to a getaway car, the mayor’s office reportedly claimed that the man seen in the videos was not the Chicago mayor. The CBS reporter tweeted, “Johnsons office says, ‘That isn’t Mayor Brandon Johnson in the video and the person that is being filmed running was trying to catch the car before it departed.’”
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According to CBS News, 30-year-old Luis Huesca was shot and killed after the Chicago Police Department officer had finished his shift on April 21. Huesca’s death prompted law enforcement authorities to launch a manhunt for the shooting suspect, which lasted almost two weeks.
On Wednesday evening, the Chicago Police Department announced that 22-year-old Xavier Tate Jr. had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder for Huesca’s death.
The Chicago Police Department wrote, “Xavier L. Tate Jr. was taken into custody by members of the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force this evening in Glendale Heights, Ill.”