The mom of a child shot dead at a Chicago McDonald's driveway has lashed the firm's CEO over a text suggesting she was to blame. L...
The mom of a child shot dead at a Chicago McDonald's driveway has lashed the firm's CEO over a text suggesting she was to blame.
Lanesha Walker, whose seven year-old daughter Jaslyn Adams was killed at one of the fast food giant's Windy City restaurant's in April, lashed Chris Kempczinski over remarks he made in a text to Mayor Lori Lightfoot days later.
She raged: 'How dare you judge me! How dare you say I failed my child! I wasn’t there when my child was killed,' she said in an interview with Chicago Sun-Times.
'Mr. CEO, you have no clue what it’s like to live on the South Side and West Side, in the trenches, where it gets real treacherous, just to survive, just to protect your children,' she continued. 'You come from privilege. You can’t speak about me.'
Kempczinski, whose firm is itself headquartered in Chicago, texted Lightfoot, commenting on the recent killings of Jaslyn and 13-year-old boy called Adam Toledo.
'With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can't say. Even harder to fix,' the multimillionaire McDonald's executive wrote in the text, which was revealed this week in response to a public records request about the mayor's communications.
Lanesha Walker (left), the mom of Jaslyn Adams, 7, who was shot and killed in Chicago in April, slammed McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski (right) over his recently revealed comments concerning child killings
Jaslyn was in her dad's car when she was shot dead at a McDonald's drive-thru
Jaslyn was in her father's car at a McDonald's drive-thru on April 18 when she was riddled with bullets and killed as part of a suspected ambush targeting her dad, who was said to be in a gang.
Adam Toledo, 13, was killed by a police officer during a foot chase in March
Three weeks prior, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was running away from the police with a gun in his hand when he was shot dead by an officer less than a second after the teen dropped or tossed the weapon aside. The CEO was also referring to that killing in his text.
Kempczinski reached out to Mayor Lightfoot a day after Jaslyn's killing, following a meeting at McDonald's headquarters.
The mayor sidestepped the CEO's remark concerning the shootings in her reply, writing back to him: 'Thanks, Chris. Great to see you in person. Such a great work space, and your folks were terrific. I said to Joe I would be happy to reach out to the operator to offer support. He and his team members have got to be traumatized. Terrible tragedy. Thanks again, Chris.'
Walker said her daughter loved McDonald's and ate there twice a week, and for the company's CEO to make disparaging comments about her and other parents who lost their children to gun violence showed a lack of respect and compassion.
In a text message to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in April, Kempczinski wrote that Jaslyn and Toledo's parents 'failed those kids'
'My daughter was gunned down in one of your McDonald’s, and to this day, has anyone from your company reached out, even just to offer your condolences? No. Instead, you tear me down,' the mother continued.
Walker insisted that Kempczinski knows nothing about the 'hood,' and demanded that he meet her face-to-face in her community and learn about the effects of gun violence on families.
'Mr. CEO, you don’t know me. You don’t know anything about us. You’re on the outside looking in, from your high pedestal, judging us,' Walker argued. 'You don’t know anyone’s real situation.'
Despite the McDonald's executive's highly critical comments, Walker said she knows that she is a good parent and that she did not put her daughter in harm's way.
Jaslyn was shot and killed in a suspected gang-related attack targeting her father on April 18
Jaslyn's father Jontae Adams, 29, has admitted knowing that he was a potential target for gang retaliation
Arrested in Jaslyn's slaying were (left to right) Devontay Anderson, 22, Demond Goudy, 21, and Marion Lewis, 18
Kempczinski's comments, revealed as part of a Freedom of Information Act requesting Lightfoot's communications, were met with widespread condemnation, which prompted the executive to backpedal.
In an internal memo to McDonald's US corporate employees seen by DailyMail.com, Kempczinski said that his remarks were emotional and regrettable.
'When I wrote this, I was thinking through my lens as a parent and reacted viscerally. But I have not walked in the shoes of Adam's or Jaslyn's family and so many others who are facing a very different reality,' Kempczinski wrote in the memo.
'Not taking the time to think about this from their viewpoint was wrong, and lacked the empathy and compassion I feel for these families. This is a lesson that I will carry with me,' he added.
Jaslyn's father Jontae Adams, 29, has admitted knowing that he was a potential target for gang retaliation, but didn't think anything would occur on the day he took her to get McDonald's.
Prosecutors say that Jaslyn and her father were in a McDonald's drive-thru in Homan Square on April 18 when three men pulled up in a silver Audi and riddled their vehicle with at least 28 bullets. Jontae Adams was shot once and injured, Jaslyn was hit multiple times and killed.
'My daughter wanted McDonald's. I tried to Uber McDonald's,' Jontae Adams said in an interview with WCGI-FM, referring to the food delivery service. 'But my baby wanted to see me.'
'As far as my actions or my past, maybe it had something to do with it. But I was a father the day my daughter died. That's all I remember being. I don't remember gang-banging. I don't remember what led to it,' he continued.
'I'd do it again. My baby wanted McDonald's, and I would take her to McDonald's again. Nothing is going to stop me from being a father and putting a smile on my baby's face.
This video police body cam image released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) on April 15, 2021, shows a frame grab of 13 year-old Adam Toledo on the ground after he was shot by police in Chicago, Illinois on March 29, 2021
Officer Eric Stillman was pursuing Adam on foot in Little Village when he fired the fatal shot. COPA cleared Stillman of wrongdoing
Arrested in Jaslyn's slaying were Devontay Anderson, 22, Demond Goudy, 21, and Marion Lewis, 18, who was shot and injured by police and taken into custody after he crashed his vehicle trying to elude officers, and then tried to steal a family's car on the Eisenhower Expressway.
All three are being held without bond in the Cook County Jail.
The officer who shot and killed Adam Toledo during a foot chase on March 29 has not been relieved of his police powers following a review by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Toledo's family, which previously faced questioned about his upbringing and his suspected involving with gangs, has not publicly commented on the McDonald's CEO's words of criticism.
Meanwhile, the March 29 killing of Adam Toledo at the hands of
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