Looting, property damage reported on Mag Mile

The CTA has suspended downtown service amid widespread looting and property damage reported overnight and Monday morning.

No buses or trains will run in the area bordered by Fullerton and Ashland avenues and Cermak road, the CTA said.

Videos posted to social media showed large crowds breaking windows and entering stores along the Magnificent Mile.

Chicago police said the situation was still ongoing early Monday and could not provide details about specific incidents or numbers of arrests.

CPD officers exchanged gunfire with an armed person near Michigan Avenue and Lake Street Monday morning, spokesman Tom Ahern said. No officers were injured and it was not immediately clear whether anyone else was hit.

Police said smash-and-grab burglars hit a store in the South Loop late Sunday night, but it was not immediately clear whether that incident was related to the other large crowds of looters.

Chicago and the surrounding suburbs saw widespread looting and vandalism in late May and early June during unrest in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Officials estimated the looting caused more than $20 million in damage in Cook County.

This is a developing story.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.