Feds Charge Shooting Victim With Contempt

Deshawn Danzler is tight-lipped even by the standards of the "no snitch code" of Chicago gangs—in a grand jury hearing last month, he not only refused to say who shot him in his apartment in June 2015, he refused to confirm that he had been shot. The 24-year-old alleged gang member has been hit with a rare contempt charge for refusing to answer questions about the shooting, which killed an innocent bystander, the Chicago Tribune reports. "I just said I want to remain silent," he told a federal grand jury investigating the Evans Mob faction of the Gangster Disciples gang. "Why you keep asking me questions?"

Danzler, who is currently in custody for violating parole, refused to testify despite being granted immunity from prosecution. Police believe he was shot in retaliation for a shooting hours earlier that killed one man and wounded two others. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for US Attorney John Lausch, tells the Tribune that witnesses who refuse to testify will be "dealt with to the fullest extent of the law, which may include criminal charges." "Courts may order witnesses to testify while providing immunity to the witness for that testimony," he says. "We will prosecute refusals to follow such court orders, especially in violent crime investigations." (More China stories.)