Film Office Chief Appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot Is Rushed to Intensive Care After Being Beaten Up by Gang Breaking Into His Car

The head of Chicago’s Film Office was rushed to intensive care after being beaten by three car thieves described as children – as the very mayor who appointed him claimed carjackers only struck because they feel unloved.

Kwame Amoaku, 51, was attacked twice by three people just before 8am Wednesday morning outside his home in the centre of Chicago, near the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Chicago police reported that Amoaku saw three young men inside his car as he walked toward it at 7:46am, on the 2100 block of West 22nd Place.

He confronted the intruders, who then attacked him and fled in a gray Dodge Caravan that was waiting nearby.

Moments later, they returned to the scene, beating Amoaku a second time and robbing him, before driving off in his car.

‘This AM I was attacked, beaten, and my car stolen by three kids,’ he wrote on Facebook.

‘Thanks to all who have reached out. I’m in the ICU, I’m going to be OK.’

His daughter wrote on Facebook: ‘My dad was viciously attacked outside his home.

‘He will be unable to work or cook for himself. Please donate if you are able.

‘You never think this would happen to your family. Until it does.’

Amoaku was appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to head the city’s film promotion agency in July 2019.

And on Saturday Lightfoot, who was elected in May 2019 and appointed Amoaku two months later, said that young people were stealing cars because they were ‘unloved’.

The number of people carjacked – 499 – is up 3 percent.

Chicago police said 57 percent of carjacking suspects are juveniles.

‘There are too many young people in this room that feel unloved, and we need to change that if we are going to change the trajectory of their lives,’ Lightfoot said, addressing an event at Harold Washington Library for young people, focused on how to reduce crime.

The mayor said Chicago cannot ‘arrest ourselves’ out of public safety problems.

Lightfoot in February said the city’s carjacking spikes were linked to remote learning, during the pandemic.

‘We started seeing this rise in cases in 2020,’ she said.

‘And I’ll be frank and say in Chicago there was a correlation we believe between remote learning and the rise in carjackings.’

Shootings and homicides are down in the city so far this year.

There were 508 shootings as of the end of March this year, compared to 582 shootings during the same time period this time last year.

There have been 128 homicides so far this year – a seven percent decline over the same time period last year.

The West Side and South Side have seen a 24 percent decrease in the number of people shot, or 110 fewer than last year, accounting for nearly all of this year’s decrease in shootings.

Lightfoot has battled criticism over her vow to defund the police, then refund it as crime soared, and has also clashed with cops over her imposition of a COVID vaccine mandate on the crime-ridden city’s public workers.

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