Fox News analyst Gianno Caldwell spoke before the House Judiciary Committee during a field hearing in Chicago on Tuesday regarding the city's violence problem that took his own brother's life last year.
Gianno's 18-year-old brother, Christian, was one of two people killed and two others injured in a shooting on Chicago's South Side on June 24, 2022, in an attack that was not intended for him, according to the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
"The police have repeatedly said my brother was not the target – that he just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Caldwell said in his Tuesday testimony. "But, in Chicago, being at the wrong place at the wrong time could be sleeping in your bed and a bullet comes through your window or in the back seat of a car at a McDonald’s drive-through, as 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams was murdered."
The same shooting that killed Christian on the 11400 block of South Vincennes Avenue also left an 18-year-old woman dead, a 31-year-old man in critical condition and a 25-year-old woman in "fair" condition with a gunshot wound to the leg, according to CPD.
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An unidentified male offender entered a black sedan and fled the scene eastbound after the shooting, according to CPD. There have been no other updates in the case since June 2022.
"One of the hundreds of homicides in Chicago in 2022," Caldwell said in his Tuesday testimony. "There’s an abundance of potential in Chicago among our youth and old alike. Unfortunately, much of that potential [lay] in graveyards across our city."
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Chicago reached a 25-year-high in homicides in 2021, when it recorded 804 killings. That number dropped to 695 homicides in 2022.
So far this year, the Chicago Police Department has recorded an 11% decrease in homicides compared to the same time period last year, with 444 killings reported so far in 2023 versus 499 at this time last year.
Meanwhile, shootings are down 12%, and total violent crime is up 29%, driven largely by an 86% increase in motor vehicle theft. Caldwell described his hometown as an "active war zone."
"For 11 years… Chicago has led the country in homicides, and it has only gotten worse under State's Attorney Kim Foxx. According to an official report by the Chicago Police Department, crime in Chicago overall has increased during the last five years by nearly 20%. Theft is also a huge problem in Chicago, which saw an 114% increase in car thefts and a 32% increase in other thefts between 2018 and 2022," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday.
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Foxx responded to comments made during the hearing in a statement to ABC 7 Chicago.
"As the nation is on the verge of a Republican-sponsored government shutdown, Jim Jordan has chosen to come to Chicago rather than fulfill his obligations to his constituents," she said. "Instead of focusing on the victims of mass shootings caused by weak gun protection laws, including his own district, he has chosen to spend his time with John Catanzara – the man who in the immediate aftermath of January 6th, proclaimed it to be a peaceful protest."
She added that Jordan's "seeking to exploit the deaths of Black and brown victims of crime, rather than supporting common sense gun legislation, is in line with his continued hypocrisy and alignment with his party that's beholden to a man currently facing 96 felony charges across 4 jurisdictions."
Caldwell, meanwhile, said he believes Cook County and Chicago officials "have recklessly ignored the people they were elected to represent, and as a result, bodies – mostly, Black bodies – are littered throughout the streets of Chicago."
Caldwell and his brother were two of nine siblings who grew up on Chicago's South Side. Their mother became addicted to crack cocaine, and Caldwell and his siblings were eventually placed in the custody of his grandmother while his mother attended rehab, as he previously told Fox News Digital.
Christian was the youngest of the nine siblings and had just turned 18 before he was shot to death.
He went on to blame Chicago's violent crime issue on "prosecutors who refuse to prosecute"; the "decriminalization of offenses"; the "Safe T Act" and other laws like it; Chicago's "no-chase policy"; and polices that Foxx has pushed during her time in office.
Caldwell is pushing Congress to give cities with violent crime more federal funding "for manmade disasters" that will help local law enforcement agencies; "support programs that address the root causes of crime"; legislation that supports "community policing"; and the First Step Act, among other initiatives.
"Ultimately, the Chicago Police Department [has] failed my family and countless others," Caldwell said. "Reforms within the Chicago police department are needed. I’ve had to go through hell in an attempt to get justice for my brother. I am now working directly with the FBI Chicago field office. How many of the hundreds murdered have that same opportunity?"
Tuesday's hearing also included testimony from retired CPD Officer Carlos Yanez Jr., who was shot and injured in the same incident that left fellow CPD Officer Ella French dead in 2021, as well as CPD Lt. John Garrido, president of the Garrido Stray Rescue Foundation.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, told ABC 7 in a statement that "House Republicans are in complete and utter disarray right now."
"What we are seeing right now is a total collapse of the proper operations of government on the part of the Republicans," she said. "So, what are the far-right extremists trying to do instead? Distract Americans from the fact that starting this weekend, hardworking federal employees will be forced to work without pay, head-start programs will close, and small business loan applications will come to a halt. Jim Jordan and his MAGA allies are the same people who, on January 6th, 2021, enabled an attack on the United States Capitol and sought to end American democracy. They have no business being in Chicago discussing public safety."
Schakowsky added that she will "continue to focus on delivering for everyday Americans and making a difference in their lives," and "Democrats are committed to extending government funding and addressing urgent needs across the country, including responding to natural disasters, bolstering public safety, and protecting our national security."
