Chicago City Wire

Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez is taking a stand for fallen officer Ella French.

“Can someone tell that mope her name is Ella French,” Lopez tweeted after Police Superintendent David Brown mispronounced her name during a recent news conference. “Three times he said it wrong. Write it down if you can’t remember you fool.”

A member of the force for more than three years, French, 29, died when gunmen opened fire on her and two other members of the department's Community Safety Team as they were conducting a traffic stop earlier this month. Her partner was also hit and was initially listed in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Brown’s flub came just days after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a similar gaffe in referring to French as “Ella Fitzgerald.”

Police have since charged brothers Emonte and Eric Morgan in connection with the shooting and each has been denied bail. In addition, authorities hit 29-year-old Jamel Danzy with federal firearms charges after he allegedly conducted a straw purchase to obtain the semi-automatic weapon used in the deadly mayhem.

Danzy has since been released on a $4,500 bond, drawing the ire of Brown.   

"When I heard this afternoon that a federal judge had released the man who illegally purchased and then supplied the gun used to murder Officer Ella French, I could not believe it," Brown said in a statement. "This decision sets a dangerous precedent that straw purchasers like Danzy are not a danger to society, despite the fact that his alleged actions directly led to the murder of a Chicago Police Officer and left another in critical condition."

In rendering his order, U.S Magistrate Judge Jeffery Gilbert said he took the fact that Danzy has no prior criminal record and that he has a job as a Head Start teacher's aide in Indiana into consideration.