CCL Holder Detained

In our opinion, CWB fumbles this reporting: [see update at bottom of post]

• A concealed carry license holder is in police custody after he shot a homeless man during an altercation in West Rogers Park early Saturday, according to a preliminary Chicago police report.

  Officers responded to reports of shots fired and a person shot in the 6400 block of North Richmond Street shortly after 6 a.m. In a media statement, Chicago police said a 45-year-old man “was walking outside … when he entered a verbal altercation with a known offender. The offender produced a firearm and opened fire. The victim sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. The offender was taken into custody.” CPD said the injured man was in critical condition at St. Francis Hospital.

No charges filed as of this writing, so the CCL holder isn't an "offender" which should be Reporting 101. Just about every media outlet uses the word "allegedly" so often, it seems to have lost all meaning. Many use it even following a court conviction, as if a legal finding wasn't enough.

• CPD did not publicly disclose that the shooter is a concealed carry license holder. However, according to a preliminary police report, the man, who lives near the shooting scene, told responding officers he fired his weapon after the other man attacked him.

  Police recovered at least eight shell casings at the scene. Responding officers also recognized the critically injured man as someone who is homeless and regularly spends time along nearby Devon Avenue. CPD records show the wounded man has been arrested 15 times during the past year. His most recent arrest came less than a week ago when officers charged him with drug possession on Devon Avenue, about a half-mile from where he was shot.

Gee, a homeless vagrant who (by CWB's own reporting) has been arrested fifteen times in the past twelve months, the last time for drug possession - which usually means being prone to....drug usage, which often leads to....violent behavior.

Anyone know the last time a homeless drug abuser with numerous arrests was EVER accused of confronting a pedestrian? Should we measure that in hours or minutes?  

Based on the available data though, the reporting is subpar. At the moment, it sounds like the vagrant picked the wrong victim this time. 

UPDATE: a couple commentators point out it appears that CWB is quoting a press release from CPD. We missed the quotation marks that might have tipped us off. Apologies. 

But when we see something like that, we usually toss in a [bracketed reference] or (sic) or some editorial notation that notes "this error isn't ours." Perhaps we were mistaken in assuming CWB would catch something like that - they've done a great job many other times.

Given CPD's history of slanted and politically tainted press releases along with outright lying over crime statistics (documented here for years), if we had seen that press release, we'd have posted it and pointed out the inherent bias.