Chicago's ex-chief of patrol cleared of wrongdoing in follow-up to Border Patrol shooting

Caroline Kubzansky, Chicago Tribune on Jul 27, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO — Chicago police investigators have closed a probe into former Chief of Patrol Jon Hein’s actions in the hours that followed a high-profile shooting by federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz, newly released records show.

Records obtained by the Chicago Tribune in a Freedom of Information Act request show the Bureau of Internal Affairs probe into the events of Oct. 4, 2025, was closed May 25. The investigation, categorized under “Operation/Personnel Violations/Failure to provide service,” was marked not sustained or otherwise unfounded, per the records.

Hein, effectively the second-in-command of CPD at the time of the sweeping federal immigration raids, was under investigation for a “no units shall respond” message that went out across CPD’s internal communication system after a group of federal agents called 911, saying they were surrounded by a crowd of angry citizens in Brighton Park.

The “no units shall respond” message attributed to Hein went across CPD’s portable data terminals at 12:28 p.m., almost two hours after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot and wounded U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez.

The hourslong standoff between agents, neighbors and activists that followed the shooting and a pair of hit-and-runs was one of the most fraught days of the federal agents’ stint in Chicago, with multiple deployments of chemical crowd controls and 27 cops tear-gassed among protesting residents.

It spawned dozens of now-closed complaints against Hein, many from far beyond Chicago, as word of the shooting and response rippled across the country and drew a wave of right-wing anger about whether police did enough to protect agents.

The uproar prompted then-police Superintendent Larry Snelling to give a full-throated defense of Hein as his right-hand man.

“The chief of patrol would never tell anybody to stand down when anybody is in trouble or in need of help,” Snelling said at the time. “I will say there was a lot of miscommunication, back and forth about what was really happening out there on the ground, and we need to do better.”

Local law enforcement agencies, including CPD, are barred from assisting federal immigration operations or under both the Welcoming City Ordinance and the Illinois TRUST Act. However, they’re still obligated to maintain public safety when confrontations occur on city streets. In the many skirmishes with federal agents that followed over the second half of Midway Blitz, CPD officers could be seen doing traffic control, forming skirmish lines between residents and agents and taking traffic crash reports.

Many on the other side of the political spectrum have said that they felt CPD wasn’t doing enough to protect residents from the agents as they roved through the city, getting into car crashes, deploying chemical munitions and arresting people.

Snelling underscored that tension in the immediate aftermath of the Brighton Park shooting and again and again over the months that followed.

“We want to make sure when we show up, we’re keeping every single person in this city safe, and we want to keep the peace,” he said. “We have to be politically neutral if we want to enforce the law. In law enforcement, we don’t make the laws, we uphold them.”

The Tribune and other news outlets reported that Hein planned to retire in mid-May, though the date that he turned in retirement papers wasn’t clear. He officially left his position June 1, less than a week after the probe concluded.

_____