Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell has gone nearly three years without answers in his younger brother’s 2022 murder in Chicago.
Caldwell’s 18-year-old brother, Christian Beamon, was one of two people killed and two others injured in a shooting on Chicago’s South Side on June 24, 2022, in an attack that was not intended for him, according to the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
“It’s tragic for my family and me, as someone who’s been very actively seeking answers on my brother’s murder,” Caldwell told Fox News Digital. “And this is one in which I never would have fathomed three years ago that we would be at this particular point. It’s horrific to know that families like mine experienced these kinds of things all the time … being without answers for years, but I must keep fighting for my brother. Simply put, I have no choice.”
CPD told Fox News Digital that its investigation into Beamon’s murder is ongoing, and no one was in custody in connection with the fatal shooting as of Monday.
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The June 24, 2022, shooting that killed Beamon on the 11400 block of South Vincennes Avenue also left an 18-year-old woman dead, a 31-year-old man in critical condition and a 25-year-old woman in “fair” condition with a gunshot wound to the leg, according to CPD.
An unidentified male offender entered a black sedan and fled the scene eastbound after the shooting, according to CPD. There have been no other updates in the case since June 2022.
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Beamon’s case was featured Monday evening on FOX’s “America’s Most Wanted” with host John Walsh, who solved his 6-year-old son Adam Walsh’s 1981 murder and has since dedicated his life to helping other families get justice.
“I mean, this is what goes on in Chicago,” Walsh told Fox News Digital. “They have these crazy high homicide rates, and it’s unacceptable. I’ve done several shows in Chicago, and I’m the father of a murdered child. My 6-year-old son, Adam, was kidnapped and murdered, so I know what it is to lose a child. And Gianno’s whole family is devastated. You never get over that death. … There’s no such thing as closure. … Most murder victims and survivors from murders don’t believe in closure — they believe in ending the search, getting justice.”
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Walsh added that even though years have passed since Beamon’s murder, there is still hope for finding his killer.
“Justice delayed is not justice denied.”
Caldwell described Walsh as “a legend.”
“I’m hopeful that there will be someone that’s watching [“America’s Most Wanted”] that was around that night or just simply knows something about what happened,” he said. “They may have discovered something that is of help to my brother’s case in the investigation into his murder. I’m really thankful and honored to be able to share the screen with somebody who’s been doing this work for decades and has dedicated his life to it.”
Chicago reached a 25-year high in homicides in 2021, when it recorded 804 killings. Since then, that number has steadily fallen to 695 homicides in 2022, 617 homicides in 2023, and 573 homicides in 2024. Last year marked the first time in five years since the Windy City recorded a homicide total under 600.
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“One murder is too many. It is way too many, and it’s hard to say that we’re moving in the right direction in the city of Chicago when there are still soft-on-crime policies in place that allow and empower criminals to commit more crime,” Caldwell said. “Things like the no-chase policy where the police have to call in to their supervisor with their own foot in a car to get permission to pursue a suspect.”
Walsh agreed that the number of murders in Chicago remains too high even though it has fallen since 2021. The “America’s Most Wanted” host believes Beamon is one of many teens in Chicago who become “collateral damage” in violent gang and drug wars; many killers don’t even know their victims, which he believes to be the case in Beamon’s murder.
“They’re enamored with protecting criminals.”
“We have so many particularly Democratic leaders who just fight that tooth and nail because they’re enamored with protecting criminals, and because they are so worried about criminal’s rights they forget about victims and victims’ rights, which is how you can have someone like Gianno Caldwell — a known identity, a known figure on the news stage — still without justice for his 18-year-old brother’s murder,” Chicago Alderman Ramond Lopez told Fox News Digital.
WATCH:
Of the 573 homicides recorded last year, CPD’s Bureau of Detectives cleared 319, representing a clearance rate of 51.7%. — the highest since 2019.
“We’re closing cases without apprehending killers,” Lopez said. “Oftentimes, we’re seeing cases run cold because the city has not either A) fully staffed the detective’s unit or B) put priority on working with community in a timely manner to try to apprehend individuals for these reprehensible crimes.”
Walsh said he would have “never read in the Chicago paper that [Caldwell’s] brother had been murdered unless he was a reporter for Fox.
“The collateral damage in Chicago is catastrophic. But [the shooters] sprayed the crowd and several other people were hurt. And that wouldn’t have reached the amount of publicity it’s reached if Gianno didn’t know me and he didn’t work for Fox,” he said.
Walsh also noted that the “defund police” movement has “devastated” Chicago officers with demoralization. Retirements combined with low retention rates of young Chicago officers have created a perfect storm for staffing issues within the Department, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Additionally, a 2016 Department of Justice investigation found CPD’s suicide rate was 60% higher than the national average at 22.7 suicides per 100,000 officers.
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Caldwell has since turned his pain into action with the Caldwell Institute for Public Safety, which aims to help families like his get justice for their loved ones who died as a result of violent crime.
“The Institute is about law and order, it’s about victims’ rights and protecting victims, but it’s ultimately about justice, no matter what that looks like, whether it be somebody who was … wrongly convicted or if it’s about an individual who should be in jail and should be convicted,” he explained.
Caldwell and his brother were two of nine siblings who grew up poor in Chicago. The Fox analyst has repeatedly criticized the city’s soft-on-crime policies that allow repeat offenders back on the streets.
Born in 2004, Beamon was the youngest of the siblings and had just turned 18 in 2022. Caldwell previously told Fox News Digital that Beamon and his other younger brothers are like sons to him as the oldest sibling.
Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects involved in the shooting that left Beamon dead.
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