A "reform-minded" prosecutor in Chicago refused last week to bring murder charges against a felon who killed one person and wounded another in a shootout that prosecutors now say was "self-defense."
The office of Cook County state's attorney Kim Foxx (D.) dropped murder and attempted murder charges against Juan Ferba, who in December fired at least 14 rounds on a South Side street corner, according to CWBChicago. Prosecutors said at a bail hearing that Ferba was in a heated dispute with a man and both pulled out their guns. Ferba shot the man three times in the head and struck a woman on a nearby bus in the hand.
Chicago police last week arrested Ferba and charged him with murder and attempted murder. But prosecutors tossed the charges out and instead slapped the gunman with illegally possessing a firearm, which they say he had used "for self-defense."
Ferba has served prison time for one prior violent felony conviction, court records show. A pre-trial public safety assessment also gave him a four in six chance of committing another crime. He remains in custody after failing to pay $1,000 bail.
Foxx is among a group of so-called criminal justice reform prosecutors boosted into office by George Soros. The left-wing billionaire donated $2 million to Foxx's 2020 campaign. Like Soros-backed Philadelphia prosecutor Larry Krasner (D.), Foxx has overseen a decades-high murder rate, with more than 800 homicides recorded in Chicago in 2021.
A spokeswoman for Foxx said the office is "unable to comment on pending litigation."
Jason Johnson, the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told the Washington Free Beacon that Foxx "drops felony cases, especially those involving violence and gun offenses, at an alarming rate."
"While it's appalling, it's unsurprising that a radical D.A. like Kim Foxx would give leniency to a convicted felon committing violence with an illegal gun because she's done it over and over again," Johnson said, pointing to at least two other cases. Both involved girls as young as seven and eight years old killed in shootouts.
"She only folded after the police and mayor publicly excoriated her," he said of the first case. "And just last year, the police themselves had to file charges against an admitted killer after Foxx plain refused."
A 2022 Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund report found that Soros's philanthropy network has spent more than $40 million in the last decade to elect 75 liberal prosecutors, including Foxx, in half of America's largest jurisdictions. Under Foxx's leadership, Cook County has seen a 27 percent decrease in convictions and a 54 percent increase in dismissed cases, another Legal Defense Fund report shows.
Veteran prosecutors have fled Foxx's office in recent years, saying her approach is contributing to a citywide crime spike, the Daily Mail reported.
A judge ordered Ferba to pay $1,000 bail and submit to electronic monitoring. Foxx's office said the gunman is expected in court again on Feb. 1.