“It’s
Halloween, and somebody is going to die tonight.” Those were the
chilling words of a Chicago gang member who made good on his threat by
firing a hail of bullets into a car on Halloween night in 2009 in
Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. A passenger in the car was shot
multiple times and died. It’s a tragedy we sadly see all too often in
Chicago. It also was entirely preventable.
I, Andrew S. Boutros,
was then a new assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago when I received a call
from an experienced federal agent about a large-scale case that had
just been reassigned. Turns out the gang member who committed the
drive-by murder had been under federal investigation for months. Prior
to Halloween, federal agents coordinated undercover firearm purchases
from him and referred the matter for federal prosecution. Federal agents
had identified the defendant as highly dangerous and volatile, but the
U.S. attorney’s office had opted not to charge him then while
prosecutors looked for more evidence. The agent soon came to meet with
me, and he did not mince words. I heard him; he was right.
Working
alongside another assistant federal prosecutor returned multiple
indictments charging nearly two dozen members of that violent gang and
others. All defendants were convicted and sent to prison. But should the
case have sat for as long as it did in the quest for better evidence
and case building? After all of our experience, the answer to that
question is almost always: No.
As I,
Andrew, embark on my second year leading the Chicago U.S. attorney’s
office and working closely with many law enforcement partners, including
Christopher Amon, special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, I can now do something about cases
that trouble me, such as what happened in Humboldt Park in 2009.
We, Andrew and Christopher, decided to chart a different course, which we will describe here.
With
dozens of newly minted federal criminal prosecutors coming on board in
Chicago, many with deep experience handling violent crime cases in
federal and state courts around the country, we are building the team to
do it. Indeed, we will do it, all while we continue to prosecute
corrupt public officials, narco-terrorists, drug traffickers,
large-scale fraud, corporate crime, government benefit schemes, child
predators, human traffickers and other worthy federal targets. Just
scroll through our office’s news releases from last year and this year —
including the first-ever annual report we issued in January: Under
fresh office-wide leadership, we are doing significantly more with far
fewer resources.
On the violent crime
front, there has long been a perception from some in Chicago that
federal prosecutors must turn to large-scale conspiracy cases against
street gangs as a centerpiece of urban violence reduction. The theory is
intuitive: Dismantle the organization, incapacitate its leadership and
send a deterrent message that reverberates across the streets. These
noteworthy prosecutions, often built under racketeering or similar
statutes, are resource-intensive, multiyear undertakings that culminate
in sweeping indictments, dramatic news conferences and lengthy
sentences. They are also, as a primary strategy for reducing today’s
street violence, not the principal tool for the job.
If
the goal is reducing shootings this week, next month or even this year,
the overwhelming evidence based on empirical research and law
enforcement experience — including Christopher’s more than two decades
of experience in multiple cities — as well as common sense, points
toward rapid, targeted and responsive interventions that interrupt
violence in real time.
This is the
strategy that gets results quicker. It’s the strategy that reduces
violent crime and saves lives. It means measuring success not by the
size of an indictment but by the absence of violence and, even more
pointedly, the prevention of violence. And with the summer months ahead,
it’s the strategy that will drive our violent crime initiatives at the
federal level here in Chicagoland.
Long-term
federal gang and violence cases are built deliberately and
painstakingly. Investigations often take years, involving wiretaps,
informants, controlled drug and firearm transactions, financial tracing
and coordination across agencies. Arrests and charges often occur long
after the individuals contributed to cycles of violence and retaliation.
That means by the time an indictment is returned, the factual narrative
typically reflects a backward-looking account of conduct that may
stretch over a decade. That retrospective orientation is inherent to the
model. It is designed to tell a comprehensive story of enterprise
criminality, not to disrupt the next retaliatory shooting.
Violence,
however, operates on a different clock. Most shootings are not the
product of hierarchical gang directives or long-term conspiracies; they
are reactive, situational and often impulsive. A slight, a social media
post, a perceived encroachment on territory, a dispute involving a
girlfriend can escalate into lethal violence in hours or even minutes.
The individuals involved are frequently known to local law enforcement
and community members. What is missing is not information. What is
needed is clear deterrence and accountability through immediate arrest,
detention and prosecution of worthy targets. Arresting and federally
charging a dangerous felon in possession of a firearm before he shoots
someone are far more effective — and decent — actions than prosecuting
that defendant for murder after he has already killed somebody.
There
is also a mismatch in scale. Long-term federal gang and violence
prosecutions are designed to take down organizations. But as the data
shows, violence is largely concentrated among a small number of
individuals and increasingly smaller, yet no less violent and lethal,
groups of street gangs and crews. Strategies that focus on rapid,
targeted intervention operate at the right level of analysis and on the
right timeline. They are not about building perfect courtroom cases;
they are about preventing the next act of violence.
When
it comes to dangerous offenders, simple and straightforward gun cases
spearheaded through violent crime prevention centers like ATF’s Chicago
Gun Intelligence Center and charged swiftly by federal prosecutors can
do more with less to immediately curb violence in Chicago. As the head
of ATF Chicago, I, Christopher, have seen firsthand that by leveraging
technology such as ballistic evidence, law enforcement can identify the
true drivers of violence to intervene early and disrupt the violence
cycle. In doing so, we can focus on individuals with extensive criminal
histories who illegally possess guns as well as those linked to prior
shootings.
Federal law can also serve
as a backstop when state prosecutions face complicated legal or factual
scenarios, such as self-defense. In those instances, perpetrators can be
charged under federal firearms statutes that carry a maximum 15-year
prison sentence.
Critically, real-time
prosecutions also are far less resource-intensive. A single long-term
federal gang case can consume enormous prosecutorial, investigative and
judicial resources. Agents are tied up for years. Prosecutors devote
substantial time to managing multidefendant litigation, complex
evidentiary records and massive volumes of discovery. Even successful
prosecutions may not bring about the desired force-multiplier effects.
Convictions have frequently resulted in retrials for one reason or
another. Lengthy prison sentences imposed years after the crime may not
influence other individuals making split-second decisions in volatile
situations.
Meanwhile, those same law
enforcement resources, if redeployed toward proactive intervention such
as gun prosecutions and rapid-response initiatives, can produce swift,
predictable justice that is more immediate, measurable, exact and
effective in reducing violence, even if they lack major headlines,
courtroom drama, celebrated outcomes and obvious career advancement.
Rapid-response
strategies are not ad hoc; they depend on structured, robust
collaboration among law enforcement partners and prosecutors. In
Chicago, when it comes to anti-violence work, we are lucky to have
first-rate federal agents and experienced federal, state and local
leadership in place at all those levels, including FBI Special Agent in
Charge Doug DePodesta, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in
Charge Todd Smith, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in
Charge Matthew Scarpino, U.S. Marshal LaDon Reynolds, Chicago police
Superintendent Larry Snelling, Illinois State Police Director Brendan
Kelly, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, Cook County State’s Attorney
Eileen O’Neill Burke, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and many
others.
This shift in mindset took hold
in the federal law enforcement community many years ago, even if it has
not made its way to some former prosecutors and others who practiced
decades ago or never really practiced in this space at all. Those who
reminisce about large-scale, multiyear violence prosecutions often speak
of a bygone era when prosecutors and defendants operated with beepers,
typewriters, fax machines, Dictaphones and cassette players — as opposed
to the lightning speed of social media, encrypted messaging apps,
drones and other forms of modern technology, such as computers, the
internet and smartphones.
The Chicago
U.S. attorney’s office and the ATF’s Chicago Field Division play a key
role in providing investigative and prosecutorial muscle for
tough-on-crime enforcement that quickly disrupts the cycle of violence
and leads to safer streets and fewer victims. The next shooting will not
be prevented by a case that will be indicted three years from now. It
will be prevented by what happens in the next 24 to 72 hours.
The
tragic murder of that young man in Humboldt Park years ago is a prime
example of what we speak. But his senseless death has informed the
thinking of today’s law enforcement leaders, who are working,
strategizing and innovating to try to prevent such tragedies from
happening again.
Against that backdrop,
at the U.S. attorney’s office and ATF, our collective focus squarely
resides in acting now, all while upholding the most cherished traditions
of our storied offices.
Andrew
S. Boutros is United States Attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois. Christopher C. Amon is Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago
Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and
Explosives. This Op-Ed was published in the Chicago Tribune on April 29, 2026.
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