David Axelrod Gets Brutal Lesson In Blue City Governance After Finding Man Passed Out In Chicago Heat
David Axelrod Gets Brutal Lesson In Blue City Governance After Finding Man Passed Out In Chicago Heat
(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Project Healthy Minds)
Derek VanBuskirk Reporter July 01, 2026 3:09 PM ET July 01, 2026 3:09 PM ET Derek VanBuskirk Reporter Font Size:Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist and CNN analyst David Axelrod alleged that Democrat-run Chicago, Illinois, ignored an unconscious man in the heat and suggested that city could have done more.
Axelrod said he was walking past the Art Institute of Chicago on July 1 when he saw a homeless-looking elderly man unconscious on the museum’s stone front steps, according to a post on X. He later added that the city’s facing a real-feel temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit. AccuWeather listed an official temperature of 97 degrees Fahrenheit and a real feel temperature of 106 degrees as of publication. (RELATED: Angel Mom Torches Dems For Protecting Illegals: ‘There’s No ‘But’ When Your Child Is In A Coffin’)
Concerned, Axelrod said he asked the museum’s security guard about the issue. She allegedly told him that she had already woken him three times suggesting that he move into the shade, but that he had continued to refuse.
Not satisfied, Axelrod said he dialed 911. After he explained the situation, the operator allegedly said, “Well, is he ASKING for help?”
So I just walked by the Art Institute of Chicago where an elderly man, probably homeless, was sprawled unconscious, on the museum’s front stone steps in the midst of a heat emergency.
I asked a museum security guard about it and she said she had woken him 3 times and suggested he…— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 1, 2026
After replying that he hadn’t, the female operator allegedly replied, “Well I’m not going to send anyone.”
“So the man remained, passed out in the blazing noon sun,” Axelrod said. “I guess that’s how the City of Chicago deals with such situations.”
Axelrod then reflected on his own decisions, saying that perhaps he should have tried to wake the man and persuade him to find shade himself. Instead, the former Obama political strategist said that he was embarrassed to say he had not done that.
“I moved on, like many others who simply ignored him,” Axelrod said.
Although the analyst did not relate the alleged lack of action by passersby and officials or any policy that had led to the homeless man being there in the first place, Axelrod did say that he hopes “we’re not all complicit in assisting an unintended suicide.”
The Daily Caller reached out to the Chicago Police Department for comment.
This is a developing story.
Son stabbed father sitting in recliner, then jumped over his dying body to leave
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Inset: Damian Eiffert in court. Background: The Wash. home where Damian Eiffert murdered his father (KREM/YouTube).
A Washington state man is headed to prison after plunging a steak knife into his father's neck, head and chest while he was lounging in a recliner.
Damian Eiffert, 40, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his father, Robert Eiffert, 61. The younger Eiffert was sentenced Thursday to 21 years in prison by a Spokane County Superior Court judge. He had nearly a dozen felony convictions at the time of his arrest in 2024.
"On October 22nd, 2024, at 2:29pm SPD responded to the area of Thor and 1st Avenue in East Spokane on a report of a stabbing," the Spokane Police Department said in a press release announcing Eiffert's arrest. "Upon arriving, a male victim was located with stab wounds. Despite lifesaving efforts by medical professionals, the victim succumbed to his injuries at the scene."
Eiffert's arrest affidavit says he asked his father "for a ride to treatment but he said no," according to local CBS affiliate KREM. Robert Eiffert, aka "Boby," was sitting in his recliner when Damian Eiffert got "amped up" and stabbed him repeatedly.
"The defendant stated he could not take his dad anymore and stabbed him to death," KREM reported.
Sign up for the Law&Crime Daily Newsletter for more breaking news and updatesAccording to police, Damian Eiffert admitted to smoking methamphetamine and being ill from opioid withdrawal at the time of the slaying. His mother told investigators he was "all over the place" during a phone call with her shortly after the murder.
Damian Eiffert also called his ex-girlfriend after the killing and asked her to meet him in a nearby alley, later telling her, "I love you … I'm done. …I just killed my dad," according to the affidavit.
A neighbor reportedly found Robert Eiffert "all cut up" and lying in their apartment building's doorway. Another resident told police he saw Robert Eiffert lying on the front porch with blood coming from his neck and chest. He said he saw Damian Eiffert exit, jump "over Boby's body," then drive away in his father's car.
Surveillance video showed Damian Eiffert leaving through the front door with a dog and walking to a nearby car. The footage also showed Robert Eiffert walk out and slump over just outside the door, KREM reports.
Washington State Patrol found Damian Eiffert later that day with his father's car, which was "disabled" on Interstate 90 near Cheney.
"Eiffert was uncooperative with WSP and stated he had a gun on his person, while reaching for his waistband area," the SPD release said. "County Negotiators communicated with Eiffert in an effort to facilitate his surrender. He continued to be uncooperative making comments that someone from law enforcement was going to die. Eiffert was observed getting in and out of the vehicle with items in his hands."
Damian Eiffert fled from the vehicle on foot and was detained a short distance away, according to the SPD release. Prosecutors say he was facing nearly 30 years in prison after entering his guilty plea, with his 21-year sentence falling on the low end of the standard sentence range, The Spokesman-Review reports.
Tags: 2nd Degree Murderfatal stabbingfatherguilty pleamurderplea dealWashington StateFollow Law&Crime:
Man choked teen and threw his phone in a lake because he walked through his backyard: Cops
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Background: The Seminole County Jail in Sanford, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: Kyle Riva (Seminole County Sheriff's Office).
A Florida man is accused of choking a teen walking through his backyard and snatching the boy's phone before throwing it into a nearby lake.
Kyle Riva, 70, has been charged with third-degree battery by strangulation and third-degree robbery by sudden snatching — both felonies — and first-degree misdemeanor damage of property between $200 and $1,000, Seminole County court records show. He made his first appearance in court on Tuesday and is no longer listed in the Seminole County Jail.
Sign up for the Law&Crime Daily Newsletter for more breaking news and updatesOn Monday at about 7:10 p.m., a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy were walking through Riva's backyard on Tigua Island Court in Seminole County, Florida. The area is just northeast of Orlando.
An arrest report obtained by Law&Crime states that Riva's wife noticed the boys and exited her home and asked them to leave. The 13-year-old boy reportedly cursed at her, and she went back inside and told her husband.
Riva emerged "angry," the court document states, and the 13-year-old "pulled out his phone and began to record" the man. Riva allegedly then "pushed" the boy "once near the collar bone," but the teen continued recording.
The teens suggested it wasn't as much of a push as a choke. They stated that as soon as Riva walked into his backyard, he approached the older boy "aggressively," prompting the teen to start recording "because he felt he was in danger." Riva reportedly then grabbed the 13-year-old "by the neck and began to squeeze."
The defendant "then grabbed the phone" from the teen's hands "and threw it into Lake Antigua, which backs up to Kyle's backyard," according to the report.
After the incident, the teens returned to the older boy's house, where his father prompted them to call 911. Authorities say the injured boy had bruises on his throat that "clearly show the impressions of fingers which had wrapped around his throat."
The father then reportedly expressed his desire to press charges.
Riva is expected to return to court to be arraigned on Aug. 25.
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Teen who had cellphone taken away beat wheelchair-bound mom to death with hammer: Cops
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News footage of the apartment building where Georgina Lee Monk was found dead on June 26 (KARE).
A Minnesota teenager allegedly killed her mother with a hammer, then asked police to do a welfare check because she felt "regret."
Ramsey County prosecutors charged a 17-year-old girl with second-degree murder in connection with the death of her 43-year-old mother, Georgina Lee Monk. According to a criminal complaint obtained by local news outlet Pioneer Press, staff members at a day treatment program that the girl attended became concerned about the girl's behavior when she arrived on the morning of June 26.
Sign up for the Law&Crime Daily Newsletter for more breaking news and updatesAccording to reporting on the complaint by local NBC affiliate KARE, the girl told staff members that someone needed to "check on her mother because she felt regret." Staff members told police that they believed the girl was spiraling and acting strangely.
Officers from the Maplewood Police Department responded to the apartment building in Maplewood, Minnesota, at 9:30 a.m. and found Monk dead inside. She was in her bed, on her back, and had multiple blunt-force injuries to her face and upper body. Police said Monk was diabetic and suffering from an infection in her foot at the time of her death, which caused her to use a wheelchair.
After speaking with people at the apartment, police said the apartment manager had been aware of an ongoing conflict between the mother and daughter. He told police that on the night of June 25, he heard the two having an argument that was "more heated than usual."
Neighbors also told police about the fights Monk had with her daughter. Police said one neighbor stated that Monk had reportedly taken her daughter's phone away.
According to the complaint, surveillance video from the apartment captured the teen leaving the building at 3:23 a.m. on June 26 with a large white garbage bag. Two hours later, she was seen on camera walking around with a hammer before being seen again empty-handed. Around 7 a.m., she was seen walking to a nearby bus stop.
Police said that inside the apartment, they found bloodstains throughout the home, including on the teen's bedroom doorknob, in her bedroom, and on the toilet bowl lid. Bloody clothes were found in a hamper in her room. Police searched the dumpsters after garbage pickup took place.
After police took the teen into custody, she told them that she took the garbage out because that was one of her regular chores. When asked about the hammer, she told police that she was asked by Monk to put it back in the garage. According to the complaint, the teen said she kept the hammer in the home for "protection."
As the interview progressed, police said the teen admitted that she struggled with her mental health and was worried that she was "crazy." Police said she claimed to hear "whispers" and "a thought came into her head to, 'Get rid of anybody who hurt you in your life or anybody who dared to hurt you.'" She then allegedly admitted that she hit her mother in the head twice with the hammer. According to the complaint, she said the alleged killing was "not entirely planned."
Police said the teen asked a detective, "Am I a criminal because I only killed one person?"
According to the complaint, the teen "tried to go back to sleep" after the alleged killing, but was unable. She continued to "act like everything was normal" and called her boyfriend. The girl was arrested following the interview and booked into jail.
Police said the teen called her boyfriend while in custody and told him, "It wasn't just rage, I just couldn't handle it no more. I couldn't wait another year of all the criticisms, and all the manipulations, the mental and emotional abuse. I just couldn't, it was too much."
The teen was charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody. Since the suspect is a juvenile, court information was not made publicly available.
Tags: 2nd Degree MurderjuvenileMinnesotamomteen
