Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city's top cop said slain officer Ella French's name wrong a combined three times this week.
Lightfoot called her 'Ella Franks' Thursday night, and Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown called her 'Ella Fitzgerald' twice earlier this week.
That's on top of denying French an honor guard bagpipe procession from the hospital to the morgue, a customary and symbolic act of respect for an officer killed in the line of duty.
French, 29, was gunned down in a shootout while conducting what seemed like a routine traffic stop on Saturday.
Her partner, who has not been named, was wounded but survived.
After French was pronounced dead at the hospital on Saturday night, French's body was transported by ambulance to the medical examiner's office, and fellow officers were prepared to line the streets and play the bagpipes.
But First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter banned it.
He told the EMTs driving the ambulance to carry on straight to the medical examiner's office for the autopsy to be carried out, saying: 'We don't have 20 minutes for this s**t.'
That same night, Lightfoot - who previously supported calls to defund the city's police - showed up at the hospital to offer her support to French's and her wounded partner's families.
Cops who were still there turned their back on her when she arrived and there were reports that the mayor forced her way into the facility.
On Wednesday, Lightfoot held a press conference to deny that claim and to also accuse the cops who wanted to perform the honor guard of 'hijacking' the night and depriving French's family of a crucial window of time to see her body before the autopsy was carried out.
She also railed against the journalists present, accusing them of asking her 'offensive' questions about forcing her way into the hospital and accusing them of 'mining from the bottom of the chum barrel' and producing 'sickening' reports that criticized her.
Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown (left) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot referred to slain police officer Ella French as 'Ella Fitzgerald' and 'Ella Franks', respectively
Chicago Police Officer Ella French, pictured, was shot dead on Saturday in the line of duty
Two hundred cops turned out to honor French at a prayer vigil on Tuesday after being 'banned' from holding the procession
'There was — let me choose my words carefully — well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue
'There was no official honor guard that night.
'There was — let me choose my words carefully — well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue.
'And again, given the new restrictions that the new coroner has put in place, that wouldn't have been fair to them and they may have lost an important window of time
'So the call was made, under those circumstances, to focus on the family.
'Eric Carter made the right call. I support what he did and I'm horrified that in this moment people are trying to savage him for whatever agenda or purpose,' Lightfoot said.
She then fumed at the media and told them they were using unreliable sources.
'I would just caution you all. Be careful. Be careful. Check your sources. Make sure they're accurate. Get the right context. Because I know firsthand, it's really hard when the media becomes ferocious in propagating a story that's just not true.'
Lightfoot then got angry when a journalist asked her if she'd forced her way into the hospital.
'I don't force my way anywhere. And that's offensive, frankly, that you would ask me that question.
'I just sat here and talked about the fact that we've got to be really careful and you have to be really careful in your reporting and be responsible. And you just keep lobbing this nonsense that's offensive and insulting and really does a disservice to the moment that we're in.'
She questioned why it's acceptable 'for people to
