On September 19th, Salvador was beat up and arrested by the 10th District Police in Chicago. He was thrown to the ground and was coughing up blood, arrested for “assault” for allegedly saying “cop killer” in front of CPD. A paraplegic, he told the cops he couldn’t put his hands behind his back. CPD didn’t care and told him to “shut the fuck up.” As they threw Salvador to the ground, his colostomy bag burst with feces, going everywhere as he was dragged into a paddy wagon. Singled out in a large group of people that night in front of his own home, this is not the first time Salvador has been targeted by CPD.
Salvador grew up in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago and, at an early age, got involved with gangs. As a kid, he was involved in street life with other kids he grew up with. But in the 2010s, something happened. Two detectives from the 10th District, David Salgado and Xavier Elizondo, started coming around the blocks Salvador and his friends were hanging out at. They were both from the same neighborhood as Salvador. One day, they told Salvador, “You are going to work for us now.” That day changed everything.
Under the threat of arrest and harassment by Salgado and Elizondo, Salvador was forced to “work” for them. Salvador told us stories of the two detectives picking him up frequently and taking him downtown. On the road, they would tell him the script: “You are going to tell the judge you went to this house and you saw this amount of X inside.” They would then take him to fancy restaurants where they would all sit down with Chicago judges, eat lunch, and discuss. Salvador would tell the judge what he was told to say, and the judge, in turn, would sign search warrants for the detectives.
What Salvador was doing was giving false testimony for these warrants, which then allowed the two detectives to break into all sorts of houses and businesses in the 10th district. What would happen in many of these raids was this: Salgado and Elizondo would steal cash, guns, drugs, cigarettes, wherever they could find them. Salvador told us him and a few others would get some of the loot as “rewards” for their testimony and would put them back on the street. The rest of what was taken was never accounted for.
One day, while Salvador was being taken to give another phony testimony, he got into an argument with the detectives. He told them he could tell someone about what was going on, to which they replied: “If you say anything, you’re dead.” But this threat didn’t stop Salvador from going to the Feds. He went to the FBI and told them everything, and subsequently, he agreed to become a confidential informer and was made to wear a wire so they could build a case against the officers. Within a couple of years, the Feds actually swooped in on Salgado and Elizondo and charged them with conspiracy to commit theft, deprivation of civil rights, embezzlement, and obstruction of justice. In 2019, both of them were convicted and promptly sentenced. Elizondo was sentenced to a little over 7 years, and Salgado a little under 6 years in prison.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Around this same time in 2019, Salvador left the street life and tried going straight. Wanting to be around to raise his daughter, he got a job as a tow truck driver. One day, on December 12th, 2022, Salvador and a co-worker stopped for lunch at Super Star and Gyros in Back of the Yards. While waiting for their food, 55 bullets were shot into the restaurant, hitting Salvador 7 times. Salvador describes a gruesome scene of him and his friend being shot multiple times, dragging themselves to their tow trucks, and managing to drive themselves to a nearby fire station. Both of them would later survive despite being shot several times. The story of the 55 shots made headlines after it was revealed that the ShotSpotter technology, used by the city at that time to supposedly detect gunshots for the police, missed the 55 shots that would hit Salvador and his friend. The scandal was reported in the news and revealed email exchanges between ShotSpotter employees and Mayor Lori Lightfoot trying to bury the story.
At the time, Salvador couldn’t think of anyone on the streets who would try to kill him or his partner. The police never caught the shooter and never followed up with Salvador. He would chalk up the shooting to maybe they were wearing the wrong colors in the wrong neighborhood.
A few years later, on a spring evening in 2025, Salvador was walking into his home from work. While he was going up to his gate, he says he heard a voice in his head to turn around. Salvador turned and saw a young kid in a hoodie and mask, pull out a gun, and shoot Salvador, hitting him 4 times. Salvador fell to the ground, and the kid started to run away, only to be shot by someone nearby who had seen the whole thing happen. Both men were taken to the nearby hospital.
Salvador survived, taking several more shots to the chest. When he was recovering at the hospital, an officer came in to ask Salvador a couple of questions. Over the radio, he heard that the shooter was in the same hospital recovering from his own gunshot wounds. After he was interviewed, the police officer left, and Salvador was later discharged. He assumed everything was being handled by the police, that the shooter was taken from the hospital to Cook County Jail. But in June, as Salvador was walking to the grocery store, he saw the kid who shot him. They both looked at each other and stared in amazement, Salvador confused why the kid was back on the street. He then went right to the local police district to demand answers. What he would find out was shocking: there was no police report about this shooting.
From both of these instances, Salvador believes today that Salgado and Elizodo are now seeking their revenge on him for turning them in, and that their network of corruption could extend beyond just the two detectives. Salvador is now a paraplegic and forced to use a wheelchair most days to get around. From his bullet wounds, he has to use a colostomy bag and is paralyzed from the waist down. His life has been completely turned upside down. A convicted felon, Salvador is forced to carry a gun for protection, having no reason to trust the cops who seem to be in on his suffering and targeting. He endures frequent panic attacks and PTSD. He now has to face more hurdles going to court for his alleged “assault” on the 10th district police.
The Chicago police have a long and extensive history of corruption and gangsterism we wouldn’t be able to fit it all in a single story. From the John Burge torture ring, which would capture Black men and boys in Chicago to torture into false confessions, to Ronald Watts, who led a crew in the projects to shake down drug dealers for their product, to today at the 5th District, who were recently exposed in a gun buyback scandal connected to the slaying of CPD officer Krystal Rivera at the hands of her partner Carlos Baker. It is not beyond belief that the network of Salgado and Elizado extends beyond the two detectives, one that is now trying to seek vengeance on Salvador.
In our outings to the South and West sides of Chicago, we have heard similar stories to Salvador’s. Cops who force kids to work for them, either as informants or accomplices to their own criminal activity. This is why people say “CPD is the biggest gang in Chicago.” Despite decades of reform, gangsterism continues to run rampant inside CPD. Salvador has had enough and decided to come forward. It is up to the masses of people to stop fighting each other and come together against the real enemy of the people: the crooked cops who continue to oppress and perpetuate crimes against the people, and the system they protect. Salvador is living the American Nightmare, and we stand with him against it. If you have a similar story about CPD corruption, hit us up to expose them. Join Dare to Struggle to build a movement to end police brutality, once and for all.
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