Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said Thursday he was “extremely troubled” to learn that a community violence intervention worker he posed with in a photo earlier this month at an event on Chicago’s South Side was arrested days later in an organized smash-and-grab burglary that led to the death of an innocent father-to-be.
But a Pritzker spokesperson insisted his office had nothing to hide when it removed the photo from a news release on the governor’s state website, saying the office scrubbed the picture after the worker was arrested in the burglary that left motorist Mark Arceta of Skokie dead when his sport-utility vehicle was hit by one of the getaway cars.
Pritzker’s defense followed the disclosure Thursday by the crime reporting website CWB Chicago that 35-year-old Kellen McMiller stood next to Pritzker in a photo taken during a Sept. 5 event for the state’s “Peacekeepers” program, which intervenes in street conflicts to prevent gun violence. CWB Chicago reported McMiller had four outstanding warrants at the time the photo was taken, before authorities say he was one of several people implicated in the Sept. 11 burglary of a Louis Vuitton store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
“The Governor meets hundreds of people in communities every week and is often asked to take photos. We were extremely troubled to learn that this individual was arrested for his alleged involvement in this serious crime, and we expect them to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement. “The Governor will keep doing everything in his power to fight crime, keep our neighborhoods safe, and support community violence intervention, which (has) been proven to work.”
According to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, at least a dozen suspects pulled up to the North Michigan Avenue store in six stolen vehicles. Multiple videos show a pickup truck backing up and ramming the store’s windows in order to get inside, the office said.
The crew was alleged to have loaded nearly $700,000 in merchandise into the stolen vehicles before fleeing the scene. One of the other suspects drove one of the fleeing vehicles, a black Kia, at about 77 mph down Michigan Avenue through multiple red lights before it collided with a Honda CR-V driven by Arceta, 40, who was on his way to work, prosecutors said.
Arceta was heading to work for his last shift before going on paternity leave when he was killed, according to news reports, and his wife gave birth shortly after the crash.
A second vehicle used in the theft operation, an Infiniti, fled down nearby DuSable Lake Shore Drive, jumping over a concrete barrier and blowing out its tires near Millennium Park, the state’s attorney’s office said.
McMiller was among seven suspects charged under Illinois’ felony murder rule since Arceta was killed during their alleged attempt to flee the crime scene at the Louis Vuitton. McMiller and the others were also charged with burglary and retail theft.
Pritzker, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, has repeatedly defended the work of the Peacekeepers program and others like it. In addition to de-escalating street beefs, violence prevention groups are known to support individuals who are most likely to be prone to violence — either as a victim or perpetrator — by connecting them with therapy, job training, substance abuse counseling and other social services to keep them off the streets. The state has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for these organizations since Pritzker became governor in 2019.
At the same time, his office has budgeted hundreds of millions for law enforcement, including to support police department recruitment efforts and the agencies’ use of body cameras and other equipment.
But the Democratic governor has had to continuously fend off Republican critics, most notably President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly accused him of being weak on criminal justice issues. In response to the CWB Chicago report, the Illinois Republican Party called Pritzker’s photo with McMiller “an indictment” of the governor’s leadership.
Pritzker and other Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have repeatedly touted violent crime reduction since the COVID-19 pandemic, giving partial credit to the efforts of anti-violence programs such as the Peacekeepers. Through Sunday, for instance, Chicago recorded 300 homicides, a 48% drop compared with the same period in 2021 when there were 575, Chicago police statistics show. Total shootings were also down 56% during that four-year timeframe, and robberies have dropped 12%.
