“And, so, the notion that somehow there’s one person in one office that is responsible for literal decades of violence — that has been rooted in disinvestment — is a disingenuous argument,” Foxx told Bella BAHHS during the Oct. 2021 interview. “I don’t remember in 2016, in that horrifically violent year, that people thought that the then-state’s attorney, who was a more traditional prosecutor, was responsible for that. I don’t remember hearing that the state’s attorneys of the past, in those violent years of before, were somehow responsible.”
At the time, she said she dropped the charges to protect Black community members from the violent prosecutorial misconduct that has been normalized in Cook County and across the U.S.
“We have been so dysfunctional in this country for so long that when you say, ‘No, we don’t just arrest everybody,’ people are like, ‘Yes, we do,’” Foxx said during the 2021 interview.
In her righteous anger at what she called a “Wild Wild West” shootout on the streets of her city at the time, Lightfoot — a former prosecutor — demanded Foxx bring immediate charges against individuals. But Foxx, elected with a social justice mandate, refused on the grounds of insufficient evidence. She had no interest in taking a case to trial that did not have a high probability of ending in a conviction.
“What we don’t want is to rush a charge and not get that conviction,” Foxx said on Feb. 10. So she asked the CPD detectives for more.
After DNA results from the crime lab were returned, the CCSAO worked with CPD to build a detailed case around the forensic evidence.
Dean’s blood has been found on one of the weapons linked to the incident. Video of the incident and the subsequent chase refers to a weapon found in a crashed Blue Dodge Charger. According to Brown, Dean was dropped off for injuries at a local hospital following the shooting.
At the press conference, Chicago’s big three — Lightfoot, Brown and Foxx — seemed to be on a united front. Lightfoot’s tone on Foxx had changed; so much so that, in a deep show of respect for Foxx, Lightfoot corrected a reporter who addressed the state’s attorney by her first name.