McCarthy won’t pursue charges in Blackhawks ‘cheap shot’
BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK Sun-Times Media lfitzpatrick@suntimes.com April 20, 2012 11:06AM
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy, with officers announced the results of an ongoing narcotics investigation in the Odgen (10th) District, Friday, April 20, 2012 . | John H. White~Sun-Times.
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Updated: May 22, 2012 8:05AM
Though he described a hit he witnessed on a beloved Chicago Blackhawk at a playoff game as “borderline criminal conduct,” Chicago’s top cop Garry McCarthy said Friday he won’t pursue criminal charges against the Phoenix Coyote player who delivered the “cheap shot.”
McCarthy told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed that he saw Raffi Torres immobilize Blackhawks star Marian Hossa with a “leaping, shoulder-to-face hit” during a Stanley Cup Playoff game at the United Center Tuesday night.
“What Torres did could jeopardize two careers and two livelihoods,” said McCarthy, who played baseball and football in high school, football in college and tackle football until four years ago.
Friday, outside a busted-up drug market in Chicago’s Little Village community, he made it clear he would not pursue the matter any further.
“It was a terrible hit. I played ball for a long time, I was a linebacker — I wouldn’t hit somebody like that,” he said.
“I’m concerned with reducing violence in the community. Let somebody else worry about the violence on the ice.”
