State Sen. Kimberly Lightford’s husband had a gun and exchanged shots with at least one of the suspects when the couple was hijacked earlier this week in suburban Broadview, authorities disclosed on Thursday.
Lightford, the Democratic senate majority leader and the second highest-ranking senator in the General Assembly, was in a vehicle with her husband, Eric McKennie, when they were carjacked at about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday. The couple was in the near west suburb to drop off a friend, police have said.
At some point after Lightford and McKennie were ordered out of their black Mercedes SUV, there was an exchange of gunfire between McKennie and at least one of the carjackers, Broadview police Chief Thomas Mills said Thursday.
Mills said McKennie is a Concealed Carry License holder.
No one was hurt during the incident, which occurred in the 2000 block of South 20th Avenue.
Similar Story: 5 in custody after congresswoman carjacked in crime ridden, Democrat run city
The suspects, who were masked, drove away in the Mercedes and a Dodge Durango SUV that they used to box in Lightford’s vehicle, authorities have said. The Mercedes has since been found, by police.
The case remains under investigation, and Broadview police were reviewing surveillance video in the area.
Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who has been in the state legislature since 1998, said in a statement Wednesday that she was “thankful that my husband and I are alive and physically unharmed.”
“I am trying to process the trauma of what happened,” she said, going on to thank Broadview’s mayor and police department “for their quick and thorough response.”
The carjacking occurred about 30 minutes after a Christmas event hosted by Broadview village officials took place close to the scene of the crime, Mills has said.
Carjackings in the town have been “minimal,” said Mills, a former top Chicago police official, but other parts of Cook County have been see a big uptick in those crimes.
Carjackings in Chicago, just east of Broadview, were up by about 32% through Sunday with 1,781, up from 1,352 during the same time in 2020.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Department earlier this month acknowledged the steep rise in carjackings, with Sheriff Tom Dart sending letters to major automakers, asking them to collaborate on addressing the crime.
Dart has suggested automakers create a 24/7 hotline for motorists and law enforcement to contact if they need to track a stolen vehicle.
His office has also created a consent form that car owners can submit to the sheriff’s office, granting them permission to have their vehicle’s tracking information in case it gets stolen.
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State Sen. Kimberly Lightford’, another defund the police Democrat. I wonder why her husband had a concealed weapons permit, after all a “social worker or a psychologist” should have handled the carjacking, right Kimberly Lightford?
AND how is it HE GOT IT, when many living there, are refused a permit… OR IS IT BECAUSE HE is the hubby of someone important?
If the carjacker was African American (or any race, creed or color for that matter) than the shooting was a racist act… plain and simple…. the useless democrats husband should be brought up on a hate crime.
Wait a minute . . .WHOA !!!!
A Democrat carrying a gun—and actually pulled it out and used it???
NEED MORE GUN CONTROL LAWS !!!!
There is a saying “Never bring a knife to a gunfight”,,,,Obviously you never bring a Democrat to one either, their guns are as useless as their politics. To a Democrat, being Proactive is when like Hunter, you hire a Pro to get active.
I wonder, if this wakes HIS eyes up, to the insanity his wife is pushing, re gun control laws? OR IS HE TOO ****** to care?
At some point after Lightford and McKennie were ordered out of their black Mercedes SUV, there was an exchange of gunfire between McKennie and at least one of the carjackers, Broadview police Chief Thomas Mills said Thursday.
Mills said McKennie is a Concealed Carry License holder.
I wonder if this Democrat Party State Sen. Kimberly Lightford and her husband still want the government to take away their guns??
Oh wait, Democrats don’t follow the laws that they make for everyone else.
You have to understand that Democrats are so pathological about concealing things like their true intentions, when faced with life threatening or even life creating situations, they default to freezing up and pull their pieces out too late, usually misfiring as they go. Never give a gun to a child, particularly one inside an adult body. When color obsessed people like Chicago Democrats get mugged, if they do not mention the color of the perp, you just know their guns are not all they seek to conceal.
Of course. Rules for THEE, but not for me.
What is her stance on gun control legislation? Most likely hypocritical, for me but not for thee!
The default position for all democraps is: confiscate all firearms in the possession of law abiding citizens, but allow criminals to keep their firearms, and, by no means, surrender my firearms.
Stinking hypocrites.
Never thought I’d see the day when the good ole USA would descend to the level of Johannesburg, Mogadishu, Caracas, Sao Paulo, Tegucigalpa, Lagos, etc etc….but here we are.
Well alrighty then, the anti-police, anti-American crowd are reaping the chaff from their misbegotten own policies! The major question is, however, at what point did old hubby believe his or anybody’s life was in mortal danger and necessitated the employment of “deadly force,” after giving up the keys to their car? The laws in my state, are nothing as draconian as those in Chicago, do not authorize the use of “lethal force” in attempting to prevent your property from being stolen! From a headline in St. Louis: “Armed St. Louis Couple Has Been Charged For Defending Their Lives and Property” – And, if you know the story, they merely were showing that they were armed in their yard, nobody shot, not one round fired, plus they thought they were defending their lives! Now, the McCloskey’s are convicted criminals, with Mr. McCloskey losing his law license. In this case, at a minimum, it should be investigated as to “who fired first,” and why did the hubby think it necessary to draw his weapon? Also, both the perp and the perpee fired and missed, is that not reckless endangerment to the local population, even though some child was not killed by those loose rounds in their bed? Oh, I forget, this is Chicago where rampant killings happen every day and night, and these are DemonRATS that laws do not apply to.
Oh, ok, I get it now. Leftists baby killing Democrats want gun control, and love the idea of taking guns away from law abiding citizens. We don’t need guns to defend ourselves, just call a social worker. But wait a minute, this baby killing Democrat and her baby killing Democrat husband, had a gun, concealed on his person, and he defended himself. Wow! Just the epitome of lying scum hypocrites.
So are we going to see him drug into court and made to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight for his right to defend himself? Is his life going to be made utterly desolate and cancelled along with his wife’s career? Uhmmmmm, no
Her husband just having a gun and showing he meant to use it may have fended off a worse outcome for this Democrat defunder of police. What a shamelss hypocrite she is. Besides calling police she helped strap for help and to solve the crime, does this Dem also vote for gun control measures while hubby totes one for THEIR protection?
More than likely YES.