Chicago City Wire

Cook County State's Attorney candidate Eileen O'Neill Burke said she is committed to prosecuting perpetrators arrested for gun crimes, in contrast to Kim Foxx.

"When I'm State's Attorney, if you commit a crime with a gun, you will be prosecuted," said O'Neill Burke in a post on X. 

"Period."

A 2020 Chicago Tribune analysis found that, over her first three years in office, Foxx dropped charges against 30 percent of felony defendants, or a total of 25,183 accused felons.

She dropped charges eight percent of the time for defendants accused of murder, and aggravated battery with a gun, the Tribune found.

After a 2021 "Wild West Shootout" in Chicago's Austin neighborhood on the city's west side, prosecutors declined to pursue charges against five gang member suspects because, Foxx's office said, the shooters were "mutual combatants," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

More than 70 shell casings were found on the scene. The men arrested were all released.

Steven Montano, a man arrested for shooting a man in 2022, in Little Village, saw his felony charges dropped by Foxx's office, who asked that he perform 25 hours of community service, according to Chicago's ABC 7.

Six months later, Montano shot and killed Chicago Police Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso, who was responding to a domestic disturbance in Gage Park.

O'Neill Burke is running against Clayton Harris, III of Washington Park.

Harris is backed by Foxx of Flossmoor and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle of Hyde Park, according to South Cook News.

O'Neill Burke grew up on Chicago's Northwest Side. She graduated from St. Mary of the Woods Grade School, Marillac High School, the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and Chicago-Kent College of Law.