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CHICAGO — The Chicago Police department is facing pressure in the wake of a shooting and robbery in on the city’s North Side and violence on the CTA.

A spike in crime in parts of Lincoln Park neighborhood in recent days has prompted an increase in officer patrols.

Residents in met Monday night and will meet again Tuesday night as part of a CAPS meeting to discuss the recent crimes. 

The meeting comes as one of their own continues to fight for his life after being shot during a disturbing robbery. The victim, 23-year-old Dakotah Earley, remains in critical condition after police say he was shot three times last Friday.

Police say Earley was near Webster and Wayne Avenue when a man stepped out from behind a building, pointed a gun at him, and demanded his cell phone around 3 a.m. A struggle ensued and Earley was robbed and then shot three times at close range in the back and head.

The entire incident was captured on surveillance video. The same camera captured unknown offenders stealing catalytic converters near Wayne and Webster Sunday night.  

On Tuesday, Chicago Police News Affairs confirmed to WGN News off time for officers is cancelled in the week leading up to Memorial Day Weekend with 12-hour shifts likely.

St. Sabrina’s Fr. Michael Pfleger believes that’s a bad idea. He issued a statement saying,“…In many opinions it opens the door for worn out officers to make more mistakes, being emotionally stressed or them simply deciding they’re not going to do anything but put in their time.  We don’t allow airplane pilots or truck drivers to work exhausting hours, why would do so with someone with a gun and is responsible for public safety?”

FOP President John Catanzara said he believes more officer working more hours is strategy that doesn’t work and cancelling off days comes with no warning to the rank and file.

“Right now they are very haphazard,” he said. “There’s no rhyme or reason other than violence. Goes to show you even with all of the overtime in 2020, we still had all the violence. Even in 2021 with all the overtime we still had 800 homicides and 12,000 weapons recovered.”