Don’t Look Now, But Yet Another Chicago ‘Violence Interrupter’ Has Committed Violent Felonies

Angalwon Gilmore, 28, started his day at a Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny) office flashing gang signs at the anti-violence center’s own security cameras. Hours later he used a Lyft account registered as “Angawon CRED” to get a ride from that same building.

Did he misspell his own name? You make the call. Anyway, he climbed into the back of a 33-year-old woman’s 2013 Acura wearing a COVID mask…and then tried to carjack her. Thank heavens Lyft has a policy against their drivers carrying the proper tools for armed self-defense, right?

Angalwon yelled at her to change direction. When she did what he wanted to keep the situation from turning worse, he attacked from behind in the 6400 block of South Rhodes, wrapping his arm around her neck and trying to pull her out of the driver’s seat into the back. The struggle went on for several minutes. She fought hard, jamming a leg under the dash and steering wheel so he couldn’t pull her free. He eventually bailed with her keys. She called 911.

Gilmore is now detained on attempted vehicular hijacking, robbery, and aggravated battery. Phone data, Lyft records, the driver’s photo-lineup identification, and a police report that lists Chicago CRED as his employer tied him to the attack.

This is not some one-off fluke by a single “violence interruptor” gone bad. It’s the predictable result of a racket that Governor JB Pritzker has shoveled large amounts of Illinois taxpayer money into—community violence intervention nonprofits, “peacekeeper” programs, and questionable NGOs like Chicago CRED.

CRED was founded by Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education. These operations take federal grants (and private philanthropy, too) and hand stipends and provide soft programming to men already deep in criminal street life. Then they claim they’re “interrupting violence.”

The pattern keeps repeating. Jamari Edwards, a CeaseFire Chicago violence interrupter, got 22 years in federal prison after a string of armed carjackings that included shooting one victim in the leg. Kellen McMiller was photographed standing next to Pritzker at a Peacekeeper event just days before he was charged with murder in a Mag Mile smash-and-grab at a Louis Vuitton store that killed an innocent bystander. He had ties to CRED’s FLIP program and outstanding warrants.

Another so-called peacekeeper, Chester Alexander, was arrested after swinging at a Chicago cop during an arrest and was found with suspected ecstasy pills. Even the director of CeaseFire Illinois, Tio Hardiman, was arrested in 2013 on domestic battery charges after prosecutors said he punched and kicked his wife, leaving her with a swollen lip, bruises, and a cut on her neck. He was later removed by the organization.

Gilmore allegedly used the cover of an anti-violence job and a rideshare account bearing the nonprofit’s name to set up a working woman who was just trying to earn a living. That’s not outreach. That is a thug with a taxpayer-funded paycheck and a nonprofit logo. Paying people like this and calling it “prevention” is a scam. It doesn’t reform them, it subsidizes them.