A former small town Illinois mayor called on state officials to allow President Trump to send federal forces into Chicago after her father was nearly killed in a shooting Wednesday, according to reports.
Former Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, a onetime Democrat, confirmed that her dad, 65, was directly affected by the “senseless gun violence that continues to plague Illinois” when he was struck by a bullet Wednesday evening in North Lawndale.
Henyard’s father was shot in the neck around 5:54 p.m. while in an alley on South Kedzie Avenue and hospitalized in serious condition, Chicago police told ABC7.
Police radio and dispatch showed that a 911 caller reported three people were spotted running out of the alley and into an apartment complex after the bullets rang out.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, WGNTV reported.
“Yesterday, my father, my hero was an innocent victim of this random and heartbreaking violence,” Henyard wrote in a statement.
“This tragedy has shaken my family to its core, and unfortunately, it reflects a reality that far too many families across our state are facing.”
The ex-mayor — now running as a Republican for spot on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in Georgia — then urged Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to reconsider allowing Trump to send the feds in help curb violent crime.
“At this time, I am calling on Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson to reconsider federal assistance from President Donald J Trump to help address this crisis and better protect the residents of Illinois, particularly in Chicago,” Henyard said.
“Across the country, communities that have welcomed federal support have experienced measurable reductions in crime.”
The shooting comes after Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University student from Westchester County in New York, was fatally shot in the head allegedly by Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina around 1 a.m. on March 19, while walking near a Chicago pier with friends.
Gorman’s family ripped into tepid statements released by Prtizker and Brandon, writing that “Calling this ‘senseless’ is not enough.”
“Our daughter was not in the wrong place at the wrong time. The system failed her,” they added, according to Fox News.
“We are not interested in rhetoric. We are asking for accountability.”
Pritzker and Johnson have fiercely pushed back on any attempts by the Trump administration to send federal troops into Chicago — with Pritzker calling the deployment of the National Guard a step toward “full-blown authoritarianism” in an October post on X.
The Supreme Court shot down Trump’s bid to deploy the National Guard troops there in December, refusing to back the administration’s request to overturn a federal judge’s ruling blocking the deployment.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday also refused to allow Trump to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to support its federal immigration crackdown
