The Latest Breaking News from David Brown

CHICAGO — A man and a 16-year-old boy have been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega, who was shot in the head as she walked through Chicago's Little Village neighborhood with her mother this past weekend, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown announced.

"To the aggressor, I forgive you," Aracelia Leanos said in a statement read at a news conference announcing charges. "You were a victim, too. As a 16-year-old, the community failed you, just like it failed my precious baby."

CHICAGO — Police will be increasing patrols in the Little Village neighborhood following Saturday’s fatal shooting of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega, Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference Monday.

At a news conference later Monday, CPD Supt. David Brown said gang conflicts in Little Village led to Melissa’s death, and "we will be relentless in our efforts to pursue any and all gangs involved with this tragic murder."

Brown says brass who criticized him are unhappy with his efforts to reform CPD.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability initially recommended Officer Luigi Sarli be discharged from the department, but Supt. David Brown disagreed, calling for a just 180-day suspension.

"Supt. Brown is trying to change the culture of a police department where the status quo served a lot of people, but frankly didn’t serve the residents of the city in keeping them safe," the mayor said in a Zoom call from Washington D.C.

Instead of owning these failures and finally upholding the oath they freely took by working to correct them, these high-ranking officials shift the blame upstairs to Supt. Brown.

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

"The department has been in a constant state of reorganization since Brown arrived, which is evidence that he has no strategy and doesn’t know what he’s doing," one police supervisor said.

CHICAGO — At the end of a year that saw at least 800 homicides in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot last month wrote to the Cook County chief judge with a request: Judges should immediately stop ordering certain defendants to await trial at home with an electronic-monitoring ankle bracelet.