Chicago Sports

Kyle Davidson was praised Tuesday, at his introductory news conference, for his open-mindedness toward both decision-making processes and cultural change.

On Wednesday, the now-cemented Blackhawks general manager asserted he’ll be open-minded toward trade negotiations in the coming weeks, too.

As the Hawks initiate phase one of their rebuild — converting their current players into future assets — Davidson realizes he’s somewhat beholden to what other teams offer, but he’s going to listen earnestly to any and all such offers ahead of the March 21 deadline.

“We’re at our current spot now because, when you’re trying to win, when you’re trying to maintain [winning], you take from the future to build the present,” he said. “We’ve taken a little bit from the future and there’s been no next wave. There’s been not enough of a push of talent coming up through the ranks to support the core that’s been here for so long.

“Moving forward, the only way you get assets is by giving up something of value. That’s kind of how it works. Or you can wait long enough that you make the draft picks that eventually come along. But if you want to infuse some volume and some depth of talent into your system more quickly, then you’ve got to move some pieces. I’ll be open to anything.”

He dismissed the concept of “untouchable” players outright.

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews do wield full no-trade clauses, Marc-Andre Fleury wields a partial clause supplemented by de facto full clause the Hawks promised him when they acquired him and Seth Jones and Jake McCabe wield partial clauses, so Davidson’s freedom is restricted when it comes to those veterans. But outside of them, there are no set-in-stone certainties.

“Whether it’s realistic or not, there’s always a situation where you might get offered something that you can’t turn down,” Davidson said. “In reality, other than those who are contractually obligated to be untouchable, no one is.

“We’re not in a position where we can hold anything back. And I’m not saying that everyone’s available; that’s definitely not what I’m saying. But we just have to be open-minded. We have to consider anything that someone comes to us with, and we will do that.”

Davidson said he has primarily conducted general surface-level, “fact-finding” conversations with other teams so far, although sources indicate some of those conversations have progressed a bit further than that.

With Fleury, Davidson confirmed he and Fleury’s agent, Allan Walsh, have talked about the goalie’s future. The Hawks respect that “if [Fleury] were to move, he would like to have a chance to win,” and Davidson would be OK with Fleury sticking in Chicago the rest of the season because their current players are “learning a heck of a lot” from him.

With Brandon Hagel, who straddles that untouchable line, Davidson said it’s “pretty obvious that he would be a desirable player around the league” but that it’s equally desirable for the Hawks to keep him.

And with Dominik Kubalik, who might be the most likely Hawks player to be traded this month, and Dylan Strome, who falls in a similar bucket as Kubalik as a pending restricted free agent undergoing an up-and-down season, Davidson said he’ll weigh the “shorter-term benefits of either keeping players or moving them for futures, or if they’re going to have a role moving forward.”

“These guys bring value: they bring value to us, and they bring value to other teams as well,” he added. “But we’re happy with where they’re at. Dominik can get hot anytime, and Dylan has been hot in recent memory.”

Davidson unsurprisingly also said he’d like to recoup a first-round draft pick if possible — the Hawks’ own pick will disastrously go to the Blue Jackets unless it wins the lottery — and wants to particularly focus on replenishing the nearly dry forward prospect pool.

Read More

MIAMI — The film didn’t lie.

Neither did Zach LaVine on Wednesday.

The Bulls’ All-Star guard has had moments of tentativeness, especially on the defensive end the last few games, and that just might be his reality the rest of the season, admittedly still dealing with a left knee that isn’t 100% and won’t be until the offseason.

An offseason, by the way, where surgery — even if it’s an exploratory scope — is on the table.

“I might not be 100% but me at 80%, 70% whatever it is [I’m] still one of the best players in the NBA, damn sure one of the best players on the court when we play,” LaVine said after the team’s practice at the FTX Arena.

When asked if surgery was in his immediate future he replied, “I don’t know. That’s going to be a discussion for me and my doctor to figure out a plan of action to make me feel that I can get back to 100%.”

While LaVine did say that stability is not the issue, he did say that there are still some pain issues and problems with range of motion.

Not all the time, but it’s there.

“I mean my knee isn’t 100%,” LaVine said. “That’s just the reality of it. You can go look at it from my game with Golden State on. I’m not going to be 100% the same way. Now can I still go out here and contribute? I can still do that, but it’s just something I’ve got to fight through until the end of the season. I’m not going to be a person that shuts it down. We’re having a great year, I’m having a good year, so I’m going to go out there and help my team anyway I can.

“If it didn’t feel sturdy or structurally right I wouldn’t be playing. I don’t want to say ‘I’m not dumb,’ but you know, I’m not going to go out there and risk really [bleeping] something up. It’s a little restrictive motion, some pain here and there, but everybody has to deal with that. I’m OK dealing with that and still going out and playing.”

As far as how the Bulls are going to handle LaVine and his workload the rest of the way out? That’s not going to change.

He’s working with trainers “overtime,” and staying in constant communication with coach Billy Donovan, his medical people in Los Angeles, and the Bulls’ medical staff. Getting the fluid drained from the knee last month in LA and having a lubricant put in the knee was only a band-aid to get him to the offseason.

“I’ll deal with it later,” LaVine said. “We don’t know what that is going to be and how exactly we’re going to approach it. But it is pretty much like a band-aid. It’s making me feel better for the time being and getting me to a place where I feel comfortable playing and being effective on the court over this last stretch. And then the offseason, I’ll deal with whatever I have to.”

What LaVine did reiterate was that his decision to continue this year was because of the coaching staff and his teammates, and all the good they have going in this playoff push. The idea of it being because he’s also a free agent this summer is secondary.

That was reported in multiple stories when he went to Los Angeles to see his specialist.

“I don’t know how people can take that but that’s their opinion,” LaVine said of those that didn’t understand his priorities. “I really don’t care. It’s not going to affect me or the way I conduct myself for my teammates or my team. There’s nothing else about it that goes into it for me or you would’ve seen a whole different outcome.”

Read More

Kenwood’s season has been a rollercoaster. Nationally-ranked junior JJ Taylor left for Donda Prep just days before the first game. Dai Dai Ames, the star junior guard that stayed, has battled a knee injury and never really been fully fit.

That would be enough to sideline most teams, but Broncos coach Mike Irvin has a wealth of talent on hand. It’s been a process throughout the season, finding the right fit for each of the pieces.

The Broncos handled Bloom 56-43 on Tuesday in South Holland. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Kenwood easily won the Class 4A Thornwood sectional semifinal game and showed that the puzzle pieces may be starting to fall into place.

Ames scored just five points and left the game midway through the third quarter when his injury flared up again. But the Broncos didn’t need showtime because they are starting to concur what had been their biggest weakness this season: rebounding.

Kenwood outrebounded the Blazing Trojans 43-26. Bloom has two excellent big men in 6-8 senior Emondrek Erkins-Ford and 6-7 junior Michael Garner Jr., but neither was able to establish a significant presence in the post.

“When my shot isn’t falling my role is rebounding,” Kenwood junior Davis Loury said. “When we are rebounding it opens up secondary shots. We all need to crash the glass.”

Loury is 6-7 and athletic, an excellent leaper with long arms. He’s basically the perfect rebounder. But he also has guard skills so he plays on the wing in the summer.

“I can play both,” Loury said. “Everyone is smaller in high school so I know I can focus and make an impact down low.”

Loury had six points and 13 rebounds. Senior Trey Pettigrew, a Nevada recruit, led the Broncos with 15 points and six rebounds.

“We’ve just been stressing the rebounding and defense every day in practice,” Pettigrew said. “It’s all about the little things and we’re starting to do it.”

That’s exactly the case. Kenwood didn’t blow the fans away with showtime. There weren’t long threes or big dunks. The Broncos won the loose balls and earned a hard-nosed playoff victory.

“They crashed the board and got all the 50/50 balls and second opportunities,” Bloom coach Dante Maddox said. “The third quarter we were down nine and there were a couple of balls we just didn’t get. We have to get those.”

Darius Robinson added 13 points for Kenwood (25-8) and sophomore Calvin Robins came off the bench to contribute six points, six rebounds, and three blocks.

“We have the size, we just weren’t putting bodies on people,” Irvin said. “That’s improving now and our defense has been amazing recently. The last three or four games we’ve been holding some really good opponents down.”

Junior guard Jordan Brown led Bloom (22-6) with 14 points and Erkins-Ford added 10 points and five rebounds.

Kenwood will face the St. Rita vs. Homewood-Flossmoor winner in the sectional final on Friday.

The Broncos have attracted big crowds throughout the season and packed the gym in South Holland. They are now just two wins from the state finals in Champaign.

“I don’t want to lose. I just really don’t want to lose,” Pettigrew said. “Finishing my career in Champaign, that would be huge, that would be the right way to go out.

Read More

INDIANAPOLIS — Bears general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus have been running the team for about a month, and they’ve consistently mentioned that players will get a fresh start under the new administration.

That usually carries a positive connotation, but it cuts both ways. Poles said he needs to “fix the roster,” and its many flaws are why this job was open in the first place. So giving everyone a fresh start also means many players, especially those with enormous contracts, must prove they should be part of the future he’s designing.

“You see it for what it is,” Poles said Tuesday at the NFL Combine. “The bias and opinions from the past don’t water down your evaluations. You see it for what the tape is telling you.”

That sets the table for what will surely be some difficult conversations as Poles tries to correct the mistakes that got predecessor Ryan Pace fired.

While Poles and Eberflus revealed as little as possible about their plans — Eberflus even ducked a harmless question about which defensive players on the current roster are natural fits for his scheme — it’s clear when Poles talks about raising the standard throughout Halas Hall, his mind goes to straight to the offensive line and skill players.

Pace fell short of delivering an o-line that could protect quarterback Justin Fields. Poles is adamant about fixing it. So Poles won’t care, for example, about the great success story of center Sam Mustipher rising from afterthought to starter or that Pace spent a second-round pick on tackle Teven Jenkins.

His judgment also won’t be clouded by the investment of draft capital and development in running back David Montgomery, tight end Cole Kmet and safety Eddie Jackson. The backstory is irrelevant. They either meet his specifications or they don’t. It’s not on him to make Pace’s decisions look smart.

Some of the current players might have the capacity, but a big part of Poles’ evaluation is discerning whether they’re willing to adjust. He said he’s “asking a lot of questions” to figure that out.

On the positive side, his ongoing deep dive into the 2021 film has illuminated at least three players he views as pillars: Fields, wide receiver Darnell Mooney and linebacker Roquan Smith.

“Those three guys — there’s more, but those are the ones that get you excited,” Poles told the Sun-Times. “I can’t wait to see where they go.”

He said he’s seen enough flashes from Fields to believe in him, but noted that those moments only happened when everything was done right, including sturdy blocking, accurate route running and sound mechanics by the quarterback himself. That coalescence was rare for the Bears.

Mooney wowed Poles not only with his 1,055 yards and four touchdowns on 81 catches amid the Bears’ dysfunction last season, but also in their recent meeting.

He seemed most excited about Smith, though, which bodes well for the Bears securing him on a long-term contract extension.

“Roquan with Coach Eberflus gets me excited — that’s one of the first things I thought about when we hired him,” Poles said. “He has the potential to be really good and do some of the things the other linebackers have done in this defense.”

There’s no doubt he was daydreaming about the Colts’ Darius Leonard when he said that. He was a three-time all-pro in four seasons with Eberflus.

For just about everyone else on the defense, perhaps with the exception of star pass rusher Khalil Mack, the new coach and new scheme present a challenge. Eberflus has been meeting with players over the past month and has conveyed to them they are “walking on fresh grass” with the new staff.

But he said it Tuesday in a way that sounded like a warning.

“This is a new staff, new systems — you have to learn it,” he said. “You’ve got to dive into it and you’ve got to put everything you have into it. Our systems are not hard to understand, but they’re hard to implement … because of the way we ask them to play in terms of the physical style, the effort, the mental intensity.

“Those things right there are gonna be different to those players when they come in [for offseason practices]. They will understand that pretty quick.”

Keep in mind, these comments from Poles and Eberflus came after extensive study of last season. When Eberflus says this will be a big change, that’s an opinion informed by comparing the underwhelming film he’s been watching with the way he envisions the team playing under him.

“It’s gonna be a little bit different for them,” he said.

Just as he was about to move on to the next question, he circled back and added, “But refreshing.”

And after how stale the Bears have gotten on both sides of the ball, there’s no doubt a refresh is necessary.

Read More

In his first public appearance since his alarming tone-deaf rant during the Blackhawks’ now-infamous January town hall, Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz laid much lower Tuesday at general manager Kyle Davidson’s introductory news conference.

Rocky Wirtz spoke just once, joking about his input in the GM search — “they asked me for my two cents and I gave them a dollar’s worth of advice,” he said — before backing Davidson.

“I appreciate the process they went through,” Rocky Wirtz added. “It was laborious, but it was the right process. If any of you have ever gone through a process of hiring an internal candidate, the cards are generally stacked against you. But I was quite proud of how Danny and everyone had gone through the process, so I was 110% supportive of Kyle. And I’m excited about today and excited about the future of the Blackhawks.”

That Rocky Wirtz’s surprising appearance didn’t overshadow Davidson or produce any new controversy is a significant victory for the Hawks, who desperately need — from a public relations standpoint — him to stay out of the news as much as possible for a while.

Candidate King

Davidson confirmed Tuesday that interim coach Derek King will be a candidate for the permanent coaching role moving forward, which is expected to be determined this offseason.

“Derek is going to be part of that process,” Davidson said, adding that King has done a “fantastic job” with “lightening the mood.”

“He’s getting a firsthand, practical interview, just like I got in my role. That’s an advantage, and he’s doing very well in that position. The one thing I’ll look for in the next coach, whether it’s Derek or someone else, is an elite communicator. Communication is so important now with players.”

King probably won’t enter the coaching search as a frontrunner like Davidson was entering the GM search, though.

Toews clears protocol

Jonathan Toews has officially cleared concussion protocol just over a month after suffering his concussion, King said Tuesday.

That’s not only fantastic news for Toews but also a potential boost for the Hawks, who are collectively getting healthy again at last.

King said the “game plan” is for four players — Toews, Tyler Johnson (disc replacement surgery), Riley Stillman (shoulder injury) and Calvin de Haan (groin injury) — to all return to the Hawks’ lineup Thursday against the Oilers.

All four participated in team practice Tuesday, with Toews, Johnson and Alex DeBrincat forming a new forward line.

“It opens up everything,” King said. “The lines are better looking on paper. It’s always nice, when you’re going into a match, [when] you’re not [saying], ‘Who do I have?’ The magnets are [not] going all over the place.”

Read More

MIAMI — Nikola Vucevic knew exactly where the question was going.

The name “Chris Bosh” was a dead giveaway.

That’s why the Bulls big man gave a brief laugh as he listened to the rest of the question and collected his thoughts on how he wanted to answer it.

“Every NBA player at this level is going to have an ego,” Vucevic told the Sun-Times. “You have to have an ego to be able to compete every night. It’s just how you use it. And I think for me I’m a team-first guy and I always have been, so my mindset was just whatever it takes to help the team win.

“Everyone has to sacrifice to get where we want to get, and maybe some more than others, but winning games makes it more comfortable.”

And that’s where Vucevic finally is — comfortable.

In his days with Orlando — especially his last few — the big man knew he was option No. 1 and had the numbers to back that up. Before the Bulls acquired him last season, Vucevic was averaging 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, knowing he was going to get his 20 shots per night.

He knew change was coming this summer, however, as soon as the front office added DeMar DeRozan. Vucevic was going to go to the third option on this Bulls team, much like Bosh had to sacrifice and become the third option for “The Heatles” with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Now, no one was comparing Wade, James and Bosh to DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Vucevic, but sacrifice is sacrifice, and when a “Big Three” is built — no matter the star power — the No. 3 option is usually the one that has to display the most selflessness.

That’s why what Vucevic has been able to pull off this season for the second-best team in the Eastern Conference record-wise hasn’t been appreciated enough.

“I also knew that once I was able to figure out my spots and the positions I was in with the way we play, I could still be very effective,” Vucevic said of his journey this year. “I might not be 24 a game like I was in Orlando, and I might not have 20 shots, it was going to be less. In certain situations it might be easier for me to play because I have more help around me, guys that the defense focus on like DeMar and Zach, so it might open up the defense more for me. It’s been about figuring it out and still being effective.”

More importantly, keeping feelings out of it.

Vucevic would love to score the basketball more — he made that very clear — but this is also his 11th season, and the chase for a ring carries more weight than individual numbers.

That’s why there hasn’t been one complaint on his touches. If anything, coach Billy Donovan has asked DeRozan and LaVine to find Vucevic more than they have, especially early in contests so he can establish the inside-outside game.

It’s not Vucevic asking for that.

“I knew with the team we had that I wouldn’t be able to play the way I did in Orlando,” Vucevic said. “It’s just me getting accustomed to my new role, new situations. That’s the tougher part when you play a certain way for so long. You knew you were going to get your shots no matter what was going on, and get them in your spots. Now every game is different. You get the ball in different places, you rely on others a lot more. It’s just an adjustment for me that I had to go through, getting used to that new role and still making sure I can be effective. We’re getting there, but have to keep working.”

Read More

Barbara Gaines on Tuesday announced she will be exiting her post as artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, effective 2023.

In a statement, Gaines, who founded the company 36 years ago as Chicago Shakespeare Workshop, said: “We still have much to accomplish together this year. Artistry will be filling our stages this spring. … More than ever, our city needs art to fill people’s lives with hope, beauty, courage — and with radiant light. … Here’s to the brightest future.”

In the nearly four decades since its inaugural production of “Henry V” was staged on the rooftop of Lincoln Park’s Red Lion Pub, the theater company, which now makes its home in a state-of-the-art, seven-story structure on Navy Pier, has earned nearly 80 Jeff Awards and won the Tony Award for best regional theater in 2008. It is considered one of the world’s premiere presenters of the Shakespeare canon.

“Barbara Gaines has had an indelible impact on the global cultural landscape as the founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Shakespeare — her vision, passion, and tenacious spirit are unequaled,” said Chicago Shakespeare board of directors chair Mark S. Ouweleen, in the official announcement. “Her audacious impulse to build a Shakespeare theater for Chicago has blossomed into a world-class theater that continues to raise the bar for artistry and service.”

The company moved to its longtime home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in 1987, and after 12 seasons to its current site, where it curates three performance venues: the Courtyard, the Upstairs Theater and The Yard.

“My mission over these many years has been to fill the world with the humanity of Shakespeare — a writer who understands the immediacy of being human, and gives us all the chance to delve into the mysteries of life,” Gaines added. “And that’s exactly what I believe we’ve been able to do together. I am immensely proud of all that we’ve done and deeply inspired by the thrilling possibilities ahead for Chicago Shakespeare in the decades to come.”

Read More

The Blackhawks are Kyle Davidson’s team now. He’s going to run them his way. And it’s going to start by starting over.

The personable yet assertive 33-year-old Canadian made that all very clear in a Tuesday news conference introducing him as the Hawks’ permanent general manager.

“We’re going to look at more of a rebuild here,” Davidson said. “There are some things we really need to fix that are going to take time. We’re not going to put a timeline on it. Whether it’s three, five [years], that will be determined as we proceed.

“We really need to do this the right way. We’re going to stick to the plan and take our time with it and make sure [that], when we get to where we want to go, it was the result of a plan that was stuck to and not deviated from.”

Not specifically referenced, but evidently not forgotten, was the fact former GM Stan Bowman himself declared a rebuild less than two years ago, in October 2020 — then flipped his position to all-in last summer while insisting the rebuild was still happening.

Bowman’s name was never actually spoken Tuesday by Davidson, CEO Danny Wirtz or any Hawks employees. But the United Center atrium echoed all afternoon with thinly veiled shots at Bowman’s directionless final years as GM, and establishing the great differences between Davidson and Bowman was clearly a priority.

So was establishing that Davidson, despite being the lone internal candidate among the six interviewees in the GM search, will initiate just as much progress, change and innovation as the external candidates would have.

“What we learned [through the search] is that ‘out of the box’ didn’t have to be synonymous with ‘outside these walls,'” Danny Wirtz said.

“[Kyle] is his own person, he has his own philosophies, and he’s not married or tied to anything in the past or any preconceived notions coming into the job. It’s quite an advantage to be both a fresh and open-minded thinker, but also understand our starting point very expertly. You get the best of both worlds.”

Danny Wirtz lauded Davidson as a clever strategist, a collaborative and communicative decision-maker, a vocal, visible and transparent leader and a passionate hockey mind.

There’s no question the former straight-out-of-college intern’s rise up the ladder over the past 12 years to become the NHL’s youngest active GM is a fascinating and inspiring individual story.

“Right off the bat [as interim GM], he was assured, assuring and confident,” Danny Wirtz added. “Since then, he has approached the role like that. Whether it’s an assessment of last night’s game or a transaction we have to go do, Kyle is very clear about what needs to get done.”

Business president Jaime Faulkner said she and Davidson developed “synergy” through deep discussions about trends in sports business while watching fans-less games together in 2021. The Hawks’ hockey and business operations departments will work more in-tandem now with the two of them in charge.

In terms of those hockey operations, Davidson — who, as assistant GM last summer, established and built out a new “integrated strategy and analytics department” within the front office — said he’d hesitated to change too much during his four-month interim tenure “out of respect for the potential new hire that could come in.” That was one of the few areas in which he didn’t previously have total freedom. But the floodgates have now opened, and significant structural and personnel changes are likely.

In terms of the team itself, Davidson is expected to share Wednesday more concrete, specific details about his rebuilding plan, but he indicated the process will begin imminently. The March 21 trade deadline is less than three weeks away.

“I don’t think it’s any secret where we are in the standings,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to acquire some future talent and augment what we have in our prospect pool or our draft asset pool, then we’ll explore that.”

Lingering veterans Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will be informed about and involved in the process. Davidson talked to the two franchise icons Tuesday morning about the rebuilding comments he’d later make publicly, making sure to avoid repeating one of Bowman’s messier blunders.

Davidson’s repeated mentions of “three or five years,” though, emphasized just how long-term a plan he plans to enact and foreshadowed just how much endurance waiting for the Hawks’ next window of contention will require.

But at least Tuesday presented a tangible, reasonable plan for this long-aimless franchise. And with it came universal agreement on said plan — and a universal promise to stick to it.

“We have to get this right,” Danny Wirtz said. “Oftentimes when teams get a little impatient is when the plan tends to short-circuit a bit, and then we lose more time. We’re going to give him the time he needs to manage expectations as that plan becomes more secure.

“One of the advantages of our family being in this for four generations is we’ve seen ups and downs in franchise, so we do have patience on our side built in. We’re as anxious as anyone to see a winning team, but we want to do it the right way.”

Read More

The NFL Combine is underway in Indianapolis and it gave the media a chance to meet with new Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles to discuss the current roster and how he envisions this offseason to go. Over the course of the 20 minute media session, Poles brought to light some glowing comments about one of his current players: third-year wide receiver Darnell Mooney.

“He’s got a quiet confidence about him. He’s hungry to be special. I’m always looking for guys like that; just raising their own bar in terms of where they want to go. He wants to be special. You can feel that in him.”

Mooney’s emergence in 2021 had him lead the Bears in both receptions and receiving yards, finishing the season with 81 receptions for 1,055 yards and four TDs. Poles went on to praise the former 5th round pick out of Tulane, saying he was blown away by his “quiet confidence” and how it’s driving him to raise the bar in 2022 as the Bears’ potential WR1.

Watch the full press conference here:

With only 5 picks in the upcoming NFL Draft, the Bears’ hands may be tied in just how much talent they can inject into the roster heading into this season, leaving Mooney as one of the team’s best offensive threats for young QB Justin Fields.

Poles said if the Bears are able to target more guys with a mentality like Mooney’s, it’s going to become contagious for the roster, leading to more success.

“If everyone has that mentality and they keep pushing each other, then all of a sudden the team starts to raise the bar and the standard. Then it’s wins, then it’s the division, and then it’s going for championships.”

The road to finding that talent starts this week as the NFL Combine runs through March 7th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

Read More

Charges have been dropped against a Chicago police officer accused of a repeatedly punching a handcuffed man who was also wounded in a police-involved shooting last year in University Village.

Cook County prosecutors dropped felony aggravated battery and official misconduct charges against 46-year-old Officer Christopher Hillas at a hearing earlier this week at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, just weeks after Hillas was charged.

A spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said prosecutors chose to drop the charges after a grand jury declined to indict Hillas last week.

The spokeswoman did not respond when asked if the office would seek different charges against Hillas or bring the case before another grand jury in the future.

As of Tuesday, Hillas was still relieved of his police powers, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said.

Hillas was placed on desk duty on Dec. 31 — a week after he allegedly struck Nokomis Jefferson four times in the groin with a closed fist following an exchange of gunfire between Jefferson and two other officers on Christmas Eve, police officials said previously.

On that day, officers who were monitoring a Chicago Housing Authority surveillance camera say they saw Jefferson remove a gun from his waistband and hold it at his side, prosecutors previously said.

When two officers approached Jefferson in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street, he ran and fired at the officers multiple times, prosecutors said.

No officers were injured or struck by the gunfire.

Jefferson eventually ran to a parking lot at the Near West District police station, placed his hands on a car and was taken into custody, officials said.

It was later determined that he had been shot by officers during the incident, prosecutors said.

Jefferson was charged with attempted murder and remains held without bail at the Cook County Jail, records show.

At Hillas’ bond hearing on Feb. 17, prosecutors said Jefferson was about to be placed inside a squad car when Hillas opened the squad car’s door and said, “Here, I got ya man,” and began to pat down Jefferson.

After he repeatedly struck Jefferson, other officers pulled Hillas away, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors did not say at the hearing whether Hillas or other officers on the scene knew Jefferson also had been shot at that time.

Hillas punched Jefferson because he believed he was about to be attacked, defense attorney Tim Grace said at the hearing, and noted that the gun Jefferson allegedly used in the shooting had not been located at the time.

Grace said Hillas had arrived at the station for work and was checking to make sure Jefferson didn’t have a concealed weapon.

As Hillas conducted the search, Jefferson’s stomach touched Hillas’ head, leading the officer to believe an attack was about to begin, Grace said.

Hillas stood up quickly and struck his head against another officer’s head, but believed he was struck by Jefferson and had to defend himself, Grace said.

Grace did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Police officials referred the matter to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of misconduct by officers.

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara praised Hillas for his actions Tuesday and said Hillas had done nothing wrong.

“I applaud [Hillas] for getting involved,” Catanzara said.

Catanzara said the grand jury’s decision in Hillas’ case showed the state’s attorney office was “overreaching” when they charged Hillas and said COPA “should take a lead from the grand jury.”

A spokesman for COPA was not immediately available for comment on the status of the investigation.

Read More