Woom Sing Tse was fatally shot Tuesday in Chinatown, a block from where he lived. | Family photo/provided

“This senseless murder — we can’t comprehend it. We don’t know why,” his son said.

Woom Sing Tse came to America nearly 50 years ago with a hundred dollars in his pocket and worked his way up from restaurant cook to restaurant owner.

He retired nine years ago and became a well-known figure in Chinatown, where he played ping pong and headed an association dedicated to the sport.

“He came here for a better life for his family and paved the way for his generation. You know, the immigrant dream to come to America,” his son William Tse said.

Tse, 71, was gunned down a block from his home Tuesday afternoon while walking to the store to buy a newspaper. “This senseless murder — we can’t comprehend it. We don’t know why,” William Tse said.

Woom Tse had just finished lunch at home with his wife, the son said. She had meant to make the trip but Tse said it was too cold outside and went to get the newspaper himself.

As he walked down the sidewalk in the 200 block of West 23rd Place, a silver car pulled up and the driver opened fire, police said. Surveillance video obtained by WGN-TV shows Tse falling and the driver stopping, getting out and walking up to the curb and firing again. Tse died at Stroger Hospital.

The driver sped off but was arrested on Jackson Boulevard near the Kennedy Expressway. Police said a gun was recovered but haven’t commented on a possible motive. Charges have not been announced.

The shooting happened across the street from Haines Elementary School, where Tse’s daughter was teaching, his son said.

‘Epitome’ of the American Dream

After arriving in this country from China, Tse worked and saved and finally owned his own restaurant, first in Dundee in the northwest suburbs, his son said. He sold that location after 20 years and started another in Downers Grove.

He put his three children through school, had nine grandchildren and retired nine years ago. “My dad was the epitome of the immigrant coming to America and taking chances,” William Tse said.

Provided photo
Woom Sing Tse and family

After retiring, Tse settled into life in Chinatown where he was known as a “superior” ping pong player, his son said. He also played basketball and exercised every morning, his cousin Winnie Tse said.

“He was a good man,” said Winnie Tse, 61, who lived next door to him in Chinatown since 1986. “He took care of his family, made money and took care of the three kids. He was a good husband and father.”

William Tse said his father raised him with “tough love” that helped him grow into the successful entrepreneur he is now.

“I know his heart and attention were all right there. Especially in Chinese culture, that’s how it is. It’s this stoic mentality: tough love, you have to suffer before you succeed in life. You take the long road. Nothing is handed to you,” William Tse said.

With his dad gone, William Tse said he’s worried about his mother. “I don’t think she can walk in Chinatown anymore,” he said.

The murder has left Chinatown residents shaken and afraid to go outside, Winnie Tse said.

“Everyone wants to know why because we’ve heard lots of rumors,” Winnie Tse said. “People are scared to walk around Chinatown, but you have to live your life.”

Seven other shootings have occurred this year in the police beat that covers Chinatown and parts of Bridgeport, according to Chicago Police Department data. Two of this year’s shootings happened during robberies. The beat had the same number of shootings in all of 2020.

Tse’s death is the first murder recorded in the beat this year, according to the city data. Last year, the police beat saw five fatal shootings, the most in any year since 1991. The beat had no fatal shootings in the years between 2015 and 2019.

Data analysis by Andy Boyle

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Chicago City Hall. | Sun-Times file

An aide said the mayor needs the authority to deal with supply chain disruptions and price increases. This comes a day after her plan to lift the ban on sports betting and impose a 2% tax on gross revenues also went nowhere.

For the second straight day, an avalanche of opposition is stalling one of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s legislative initiatives — this time authorization to sign and modify emergency contracts up to $1 million without City Council approval.

On Tuesday, the mayor’s plan to lift the ban on sports betting in Chicago and impose a two percent tax on gross revenues stalled in a joint City Council committee.

On Wednesday, it was Lightfoot’s request for expanded emergency contracting authority to deal with supply chain disruptions and inflationary price increases that threaten to leave the city without the products it needs to protect public safety.

Chief Procurement Officer Aileen Velasquez tried and failed to convince the Council’s Budget Committee to double — from $500,000 to $1 million–the mayor’s power to sign emergency contracts and modify existing agreements.

Velasquez specifically cited chlorine and other chemicals used to purify Lake Michigan drinking water and aluminum needed to make stop signs as examples of products where supply is short, prices have soared and deliveries could be cut off without an increase in the mayor’s emergency powers.

She argued there are “four or five” contracts that must be modified immediately to protect public safety in an “unstable” market for water purification chemicals, steel and aluminum.

“Water chemicals are essential for public health. We need to have those chemicals on hand and be able to have an inventory. And the pricing today, due to market trends and the shortage of supplies, are impacting the cost. We are seeing increases in those chemicals from anywhere from 22 to 45%, [up] to 100%,” she said.

“In normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be such a shift in pricing. We would be paying, maybe 3 to 5% a year for that material. These are extraordinary times. That’s not what’s happening in the market today. The market is unstable and, because of the shortage, it is demanding these higher prices. Vendors have been trying to comply with the contract and sending us material. But, this has been going on for a while. They can no longer do this.”

Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine insisted the ordinance was “not an attempt to shift contract authority away from the City Council.”

The arguments didn’t fly with anybody on the committee.

Opposition to giving the mayorwhat one member called a “blank check” was so universal, committee chairwoman Pat Dowell (3rd) had no choice but to hold the ordinance. Lightfoot had introduced it — without warning — directly to committee, hoping for immediate consideration.

“We’ve got to have chlorine for our water treatment. I understand that. But, these folks need to live up to the commitments that they made. … We’re not buying gas at the gas pump. We enter into long-term agreements to take advantage of good pricing and the fact that we do use a lot of stuff,” said Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the Black Caucus.

“I really don’t like this. I don’t want us to not have what we need when we need to have it. But I don’t like how we’re being treated. … Everybody’s blaming everything on COVID and it’s driving inflation. … This doesn’t feel good. Nor does it smell good.”

Velasquez tried to assure Council members reluctant to relinquish any more power.

“This is an emergency and it’s temporary. Once pricing stabilizes, the intent is to revert to negotiated contract prices. This is just responding to the market and the supply and demand challenges.”

It didn’t work.

“It’s temporary during the bona fide emergency — as defined by you. That could continue on as long as you define it as an emergency. No one has the discussion but you. That’s the conundrum that we’re in,” indicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) told Velasquez.

Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th), Lightfoot’s hand-picked chair of the Committee on Workforce Development, added: “I’ll be voting `no’ on this. Sorry. A million dollars? That needs to come to us.”

When downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) asked Velasquez “how you’ll determine the crisis is over,” he was told prices must stabilize for “60 to 90 days” before emergency powers are lifted.

“I’m gonna stop asking questions. I’ve heard enough. I agree with my colleagues. We’re being asked to write a blank check to the administration. And as a legislative body, we have a responsibility to review these things,” Reilly said.

“If it truly is four or five contracts we’re talking about here, let’s have you go and amend those contracts, present these to us and allow us to vote on them.”

It’s not the first time that the Council has balked at giving Lightfoot the expanded spending and contracting authority she says she needs to respond on a dime to the coronavirus pandemic.

In April 2020, amid complaints of a “power grab,” the mayor won similar powers by a 29 to 21 roll-call vote reminiscent of Council Wars.

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The North Side neighborhood boasts Vietnamese restaurants, country music, and gay bars.Read More

Kenwood’s Darrin Ames (4) drives the ball past Clemente’s Trey Spires (2) last season. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

You will be hard pressed to find a team more talented than Kenwood — at least on paper and when putting the Broncos up against the eye test.

Glenbard West opened the season as the preseason No. 1 team. The Hilltoppers are still the best team after the work coach Jason Opoka’s Hilltoppers have put in over the first two weeks of the season.

But you will be hard pressed to find a team more talented than Kenwood — at least on paper and when putting the Broncos up against the eye test.

When you consider coach Mike Irvin lost the state’s best junior prospect, athletic 6-7 wing JJ Taylor, to a prep school this fall, that’s a startling statement. Taylor is one of the top 10 prospects in the country in the Class of 2023.

However, there is no shortage of high-level individual talent at Kenwood. Right now it’s a young team that is still coming together under Irvin, who begins just his second season as head coach.

While the competition Kenwood faced in its Chicago Elite Classic matchup was clearly overwhelmed — the Broncos crushed Evangel Christian out of Kentucky 80-38 with a dazzling display of three-point shooting and transition basketball — the individual talent opened eyes. And many college coaches in attendance I spoke with throughout the night took notice.

Senior guard Trey Pettigrew is headed to Nevada and brings a wealth of experience. Darius Robinson, a senior scoring threat who transferred in this year, impressed in the backcourt. Freshman Bryce Heard is arguably the top-ranked player in the state in the Class of 2025.

But Saturday was a time for the junior tandem of Darrin “Dai Dai” Ames and Davious Loury to shine. These are two of the elite players in Illinois in the Class of 2023. Ames is a dynamic scorer who pumped in a game-high 30 points, including seven three-pointers. Loury is a skilled, multi-faceted 6-7 forward who scored 20 points in a variety of ways.

No. 2

Don’t overlook Wheaton South’s 6-0 start. The Tigers have handed Naperville Central, Fremd and ranked Rolling Meadows and star Cam Christie their only losses of the season. Throw in a win over a solid St. Charles North and coach Mike Healy’s team is clearly one to watch going forward.

The early-season success should not be a surprise. Wheaton South went 16-2 a year ago, won the DuKane Conference and returned several key players. More importantly, Wheaton South’s system works and the winning has become commonplace.

Healy scrapped the man-to-man defense and implemented a ball-press defense in 2015-16. Admittedly, Healy’s team struggled with the adjustment that first season but managed to finish 17-12. But he made a commitment to the ball-press and his players completely bought in and became more comfortable with it.

There are different concepts to the ball-press, but it’s truly a safer form of a pressure defense. The players in the Wheaton South program have thrived with it. There are five players constantly moving with specific responsibilities. They anticipate, communicate and react and are aware of the passing lanes all while being able to dictate tempo.

The wins have followed since the innovative move to the ball-press.

Prior to last season’s impressive 16-win Covid-shortened season the Tigers put together four straight 20-plus win seasons, highlighted by the 2016-17 team that finished 29-2.

This is no slight to the individual players that have come and gone through the Wheaton South program over the past six-plus seasons, but there are few coaches who have won more with less than Healy.

There is precision and patience offensively, but a large part of the success is a defense and overall style that is a burden to play against. Wheaton South’s ball-press defense frustrates and can wear down opponents, often forcing them out of their normal offense. Plus, no one is truly accustomed to playing against it.

This season senior varsity veteran Tyler Fawcett has led the way with 15.2 points a game, but there are three others in double figures. The senior backcourt of Danny Healy and Rourke Robinson and 6-4 junior Braylen Meredith are all averaging 10 points a game.

No. 3

Here’s a 1-2 punch no one has heard of just yet: Jonah Hinton and Mantas Zilys.

The Naperville Central tandem have put up some whopping numbers to start the season. Hinton and Zilys are averaging a combined 42 points a game in leading the Redhawks to a 6-1 start.

Hinton entered the season as a recruiting priority for many small college programs. The 6-2 senior point guard has put up 20.2 points, four rebounds and 5.2 assists a game.

Zilys, a 6-4 junior and versatile weapon on the perimeter with his ability to shoot and get to the basket off the dribble, is averaging 22 points, eight rebounds and 2.7 steals a game.

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Family attorney Jeff Storms, left, accompanies the family of Daunte Wright as they arrive at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, as opening statements begin in the trial for former suburban Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter. | AP

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge began her opening statement at former officer Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial by telling jurors that a police officer’s the fundamental duty is to protect the sanctity of life.

MINNEAPOLIS –The suburban Minneapolis police officer who killed Daunte Wright violated her training and “betrayed a 20-year-old kid” when she shot him with a handgun instead of a Taser during a traffic stop, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge began her opening statement at former officer Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial by telling jurors that a police officer’s the fundamental duty is to protect the sanctity of life. She also said Potter had received extensive training, including in risks of firing the wrong weapon.

“This is exactly what she had been trained for years to prevent,” prosecutor Erin Eldridge said. “But on April 11, she betrayed her badge and she failed Daunte Wright.”

Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s April 11 death in Brooklyn Center. The white former officer — she resigned two days after the shooting — has said she meant to use her Taser on the 20-year-old Wright after he tried to drive away from a traffic stop as officers tried to arrest him, but that she grabbed her handgun instead.

Her body camera recorded the shooting.

Once Potter’s lawyers begin their defense, they’re expected to claim that Wright made an innocent mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser when she shot Wright in April as he tried to drive away from a traffic stop.

Potter’s Taser was holstered on her left side, and her handgun on her right. Prosecutors argue that she was trained explicitly about the danger of avoiding deadly mix-ups.

“We trust them to know wrong from right, and left from right,” Eldridge said. “This case is about an officer who knew not to get it dead wrong, but she failed to get it right.”

Potter is white and Wright was Black.

A mostly white jury was seated last week in a case that sparked angry demonstrations outside the Brooklyn Center police station last spring. Those demonstrations, with protesters frequently clashing with police in riot gear, happened as former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was on trial just 10 miles away for killing George Floyd.

Potter was training a new officer when they pulled Wright over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, according to a criminal complaint.

When they found that Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant, they tried to arrest him but he got back into his car instead of cooperating. Potter’s body-camera video recorded her shouting “Taser, Taser, Taser” and “I’ll tase you” before she fired once with her handgun.

Afterward, she is heard saying, “I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun.”

To bolster their claim that it was an accident, defense attorneys have highlighted Potter’s immediate reaction and later body-camera footage that hasn’t been seen by the public in which Potter is said to have repeatedly expressed remorse. But they have also asserted that Potter was within her rights to use deadly force if she had consciously chosen to do so because Wright’s actions endangered other officers at the scene.

“She believed the use of a Taser was appropriate when she saw Mr. Wright’s abject denial of his lawful arrest coupled with his attempted flight,” defense attorney Paul Engh wrote in a pretrial filing seeking to dismiss one of the charges. “She could have shot him.”

Prosecutors say Potter had been trained on Taser use several times during her 26-year police career, including twice in the six months that preceded the shooting. In one of their own pretrial filings, they cited training that explicitly warns officers about confusing a handgun with a Taser and directs them “to learn the differences between their Taser and firearm to avoid such confusion.”

Eldridge told jurors they would hear about several policies that she says Potter violated, including a policy on Taser use that says flight from an officer is not a good cause for using it.

A jury of 14 people, including two white alternates, will hear the case. Nine of the 12 jurors likely to deliberate are white, one is Black and two are Asian.

The jury’s racial makeup is roughly in line with the demographics of Hennepin County, which is about 74% white. But the jury is notably less diverse than the one that convicted Chauvin in Floyd’s killing.

Potter has told the court she will testify.

The most serious charge against Potter requires prosecutors to prove recklessness, while the lesser requires them to prove culpable negligence. Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of just over seven years on the first-degree manslaughter count and four years on the second-degree one. Prosecutors have said they will seek a longer sentence.

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Flanked by family members, supporters, attorneys and bodyguards, former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett walks into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Wednesday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

“Mr. Smollett went on that witness stand, took and oath to tell the truth, and made many, many false statements to you,” Special Prosecutor Dan Webb said in his closing statements. “He lied to you as jurors.”

Jussie Smollett’s fate will soon be handed over to a Cook County jury tasked with determining whether the “Empire” actor lied to Chicago police when he said he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack nearly three years ago.

Special prosecutors began their closing arguments in the trial about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, asking jurors to find Smollett guilty of the six counts of disorderly conduct he faces for the six times he allegedly gave a false statement to police.

For two hours, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb slowly walked the jury back through the seven days of testimony, highlighting what he said was “overwhelming evidence” that proved Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and then lied to police about it.

The actor refused to hand over evidence to help solve the crime, because “Smollett didn’t want the crime solved,” Webb said.

If Smollett turned his cellphone over to police, investigators would have been quickly led to the two brothers who were initially arrested and if police got his medical records, investigators would have known he only suffered minor injuries, Webb said.

Webb also worked to impugn Smollett’s eight hours of testimony earlier this week, saying the actor’s explanations were so unbelievable, they “lacked any credibility whatsoever.”

“Mr. Smollett went on that witness stand, took and oath to tell the truth, and made many, many false statements to you,” the special prosecutor said. “He lied to you as jurors.”

Webb questioned how Smollett expected jurors to believe that Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo would know exactly where and when Smollett would be leaving his home on the frigid January 2019 morning when he said he was allegedly attacked.

“How would the brothers ever know where Smollett was going to be right at 2 a.m.?” Webb said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

The Special prosecutors’ case relied heavily on the testimony of the Osundairos, who claimed the actor recruited them to “fake beat him up.”

But Webb said, the brothers’ interviews with police could also be backed up by evidence uncovered by investigators who looked at 1,500 hours of surveillance video and GPS cellphone records.

Police “busted their buns” to solve the crime Smollett claimed he was a victim of, Webb said.

Webb last week said it was “just plain wrong that Mr. Smollett, as a successful Black actor, openly gay person, would denigrate something as serious as a hate crime and then just pretend one occurred when it didn’t occur.”

Defense attorneys countered in their opening statements last week that police rushed to judgment, believing the Osundairos over Smollett.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Former federal prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, walks into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Wednesday.

Word that the popular actor had been beaten by two men as he walked home from a sandwich shop in the freezing cold on Jan. 29, 2019, quickly made international headlines.

That his alleged attackers had yelled racist and anti-gay slurs at him, doused him in bleach and hung a thin rope noose around his neck in the attack — while supposedly wearing a red hat and shouting President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan — elevated the crime to “an attempted modern-day lynching” as Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter shortly after the news broke.

But rumors that the case was not what it first appeared to be cast a shadow on the actor soon after.

The legal stakes for Smollett are fairly low. The actor would likely be sentenced to probation if he’s found guilty due to his lack of a criminal background. But the damage in the court of public opinion could be a life sentence for Smollett’s career.

After he was charged, Smollett was written off the hit television drama and his attempt to branch out into music with the release of his first album stalled.

Even if he is acquitted, the road back to stardom for the actor would seem exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.

The allegations that Smollett faked the attack for publicity “made him a pariah,” lead defense attorney Nenye Uche acknowledged at the beginning of the trial.

Still, a not guilty verdict would at least give the actor a shallow hold to cling to if he tried to rebuild his career.

Smollett testified that he was riding high in the winter of 2019 and about to film an episode of “Empire” in which his character, Jamal Lyon, was to marry another man — the first gay Black male marriage on network TV. Smollett’s music career was blossoming, and his “Empire” salary had nearly tripled from the first season.

Smollett testified that he didn’t want to call police after the attack, fearing that if it became public that he’d been beaten up, it would hurt his chances of scoring traditionally masculine acting roles. The publicity that came after the assault became news — hoax or not– boosted his profile, and the fallout after police charged him for allegedly staging the hate crime quickly killed his career.

“Since this incident happened have you gotten and secured significant roles in Hollywood or in TV or commercials?” Uche asked Smollett.

“No,” the actor said flatly.

“Did you gain anything?” Uche asked.

“I’ve lost my livelihood,” Smollett said.

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Former Mount Carmel and Illinois star Glenn Foster Jr. died Monday in Alabama. He was 31. | Wilfredo Lee/AP

Foster was in police custody in Pickens County, Alabama, after a car crash.

REFORM, Ala. — Alabama authorities are investigating after former NFL player Glenn Foster Jr. died in custody following a high-speed chase that resulted in his arrest and then a scuffle involving officers in the county jail where he was being held.

The death of the 31-year-old former New Orleans Saints player was reported at a medical facility Monday in Northport, Alabama, according to a statement from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Foster also played at Mount Carmel High School and the University of Illinois.

While being handcuffed, Foster fought against a Pickens County deputy and a correctional officer, injuring the deputy’s nose and hand, according to court records obtained by The Associated Press.

Following his arrest, Foster had an initial court appearance before Pickens County District Judge Samuel Junkin, where he was “non-compliant and refused to respond to answer any questions” aside from demanding an attorney, the judge wrote in an order Monday.

Based on police observations and how Foster behaved, the judge said Foster was “not mentally stable and a danger to himself and others” and ordered him held without bond for a mental evaluation at Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa.

But what happened from that time until his death was a mystery. Few other details have been released.

Foster’s parents say they fear their son might not have received proper care while in custody, they told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.

“I can’t get my son back, but we want whoever is responsible to pay for this,” his mother, Sabrina Foster, told the news organization.

The investigation has been turned over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which said no further information was available as the investigation is ongoing.

Foster had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was about 20 but had mostly been able to manage the illness before the arrest, Foster’s father, Glenn Foster Sr., told the news outlet. The arrest happened as his son was driving to Atlanta on business, his father said.

Foster had been arrested Sunday afternoon in the small town of Reform, Alabama, on charges of reckless endangerment and resisting arrest by “attempt to elude,” jail records show.

Foster was driving at speeds of up to 90 mph (145 kph), and led officers on a chase along a state highway that crossed into the nearby town of Gordo, whose officers joined the chase, Reform police Chief Richard Black told the New Orleans news site. Officers used a “spike strip” to flatten all four of his tires and slow the car, but he crashed into a business, Black said.

He engaged in what Black described as a “small, minor tussle” with officers but no one appeared to get hurt, Black said. He was then handcuffed and driven to the Pickens County Jail.

He was booked into jail on charges of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and attempting to elude police, jail records show.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a statement it was investigating at the request of the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. No cause of death was released and Foster’s body was released to the Department of Forensic Science.

Originally from Chicago, Foster has been living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He played two seasons for the Saints at defensive end, appearing in 17 games in 2013 and 2014.

Court records do not include the name of any attorney who might have represented Foster.

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“This senseless murder — we can’t comprehend it. We don’t know why,” Woom Sing Tse’s son said.

Woom Sing Tse came to America nearly 50 years ago with a hundred dollars in his pocket and worked his way up from restaurant cook to restaurant owner.

He retired nine years ago and became a well-known figure in Chinatown, where he played ping pong and headed an association dedication to the sport.

“He came here for a better life for his family and paved the way for his generation. You know, the immigrant dream to come to America” his son William Tse said.

Tse, 71, was gunned down a block from his home Tuesday afternoon while walking to the store to buy a newspaper. “This senseless murder — we can’t comprehend it. We don’t know why,” William Tse said.

Woom Tse had just finished lunch at home with his wife, the son said. She had meant to make the trip but Tse said it was too cold outside and went to get the newspaper himself.

As he walked down the sidewalk in the 200 block of West 23rd Place, a silver car pulled up and the driver opened fire, police said. Surveillance video obtained by WGN-TV shows Tse falling and the driver stopping, getting out and walking up to the curb and firing again. Tse died at Stroger Hospital.

The driver sped off but was arrested on Jackson Boulevard near the Kennedy Expressway. Police said a gun was recovered but haven’t commented on a possible motive. Charges have not been announced.

The shooting happened across the street from Haines Elementary School, where Tse’s daughter was teaching, his son said.

‘Epitome’ of the American Dream

After arriving in this country from China, Tse worked and saved and finally owned his own restaurant, first in Dundee in the northwest suburbs, his son said. He sold that location after 20 years and started another in Downers Grove.

He put his three children through school, had nine grandchildren and retired nine years ago. “My dad was the epitome of the immigrant coming to America and taking chances,” William Tse said.

After retiring, Tse settled into life in Chinatown where he was known as a “superior” ping pong player, his son said. He also played basketball and exercised every morning, his cousin Winnie Tse said.

“He was a good man,” said Winnie Tse, 61, who lived next door to him in Chinatown since 1986. “He took care of his family, made money and took care of the three kids. He was a good husband and father.”

William Tse said his father raised him with “tough love” that helped him grow into the successful entrepreneur he is now.

“I know his heart and attention were all right there. Especially in Chinese culture, that’s how it is. It’s this stoic mentality: tough love, you have to suffer before you succeed in life. You take the long road. Nothing is handed to you,” William Tse said.

With his dad gone, William Tse said he’s worried about his mother. “I don’t think she can walk in Chinatown anymore,” he said.

The murder has left Chinatown residents shaken and afraid to go outside, Winnie Tse said.

“Everyone wants to know why because we’ve heard lots of rumors,” Winnie Tse said. “People are scared to walk around Chinatown, but you have to live your life.”

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Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Charles Schmadeke | Sun-Times file

State regulators rejected bids from Matteson, as well as a Waukegan proposal from a former state senator who poured thousands of dollars into local elections.

Two of the most important cards in Illinois’ massive gambling expansion have finally been dealt.

State regulators on Wednesday named their chosen developers to break ground on a new casino in Waukegan and another straddling the border of south suburban Homewood and East Hazel Crest, ending a selection process that dragged on for more than two years due to COVID-19 shutdowns and other delays.

While the location of the north suburban gambling emporium was never in doubt, the Illinois Gaming Board picked Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts Inc. to set up its high-stakes shop at the shuttered Fountain Square shopping center in Waukegan — though a legal challenge from a spurned competitor could still be looming.

The field was much wider for the south suburban casino license. The state gambling law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 that paved the way for the new casinos pitted a handful of suburbs against each other to bid for what is expected to be a cash cow for south suburban communities that have been economically neglected for generations.

Homewood/East Hazel Crest beat out Matteson with a proposal to build the casino just off Interstate 80 near 175th and Halsted streets. Calumet City and Lynwood were culled from the bidding process in October.

Regulators voted 4-0 to grant findings of “preliminary suitability” for the Waukegan and Homewood/East Hazel Crest bidders. That means they can start laying the groundwork for the casinos, which have been coveted by officials in each of the suburbs for decades.

The Homewood-East Hazel Crest bid is led by Alabama-based Wind Creek Hospitality, part of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which runs 10 gambling operations in Alabama, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and the Caribbean island of Curacao. Project partners have promised a $440 million, 64,000-square-foot casino along with a 21-story hotel and an entertainment center.

Provided by Wind Creek Hospitality
A rendering of a casino proposed by Wind Creek Hospitality just off Interstate 80 near 175th and Halsted streets, straddling the border of Homewood and East Hazel Crest.

The group is represented by former gaming board general counsel Donna More, who also launched a failed bid to unseat Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in the 2020 Democratic primary election.

The bid from Full House Resorts, a publicly traded company, is behind the $400 million “American Place” Waukegan proposal, which envisions a high-end gambling temple catering to high-rollers — complete with “ultra-luxurious” villas and a helicopter landing pad “to expedite travel time for hotel guests seeking to bypass traffic.”

Provided by Full House Resorts
A rendering of the proposed “American Place” casino in Waukegan.

The Gaming Board had been poised to issue the Waukegan license last month but delayed its decision “out of respect for the judicial process” in a federal lawsuit filed by a foiled bidder.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community sued Waukegan in 2019 after the city voted to eliminate its proposal even though the Wisconsin tribe scored well on the evaluation system. The Potawatomi claimed the process was “rigged” to favor a bid backed by former state Sen. Michael Bond, who poured thousands of dollars into local elections and whose “North Point” casino proposal was rejected by regulators.

The Potawatomi filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Gaming Board from moving ahead with its selection until the lawsuit was resolved. Cook County Judge Cecilia Horan turned down the request Tuesday, saying the tribe didn’t have legal standing to hold up the selection.

“The casino is not going to open tomorrow. There are still many, many steps before anyone opens a casino in Waukegan,” Horan said during a virtual hearing.

The selections come two and a half years after Pritzker signed the gambling law that created six new casino licenses, introduced legal sports betting, allowed for slots and table games at racetracks and expanded the number of gambling terminals allowed at gas stations, truck stops, bars and other lounges. The coronavirus put a crimp on the expansion, which has rolled out in fits and starts under the chronically understaffed and overworked Gaming Board.

Of the six casinos, only the Hard Rock in Rockford has started taking bets. Ground was to be broken Wednesday on a new casino in downstate Williamson County. Danville’s revised casino bid is still being reviewed by regulators after an initial proposal fell through.

The most important piece of the gambling expansion — the Chicago mega-casino — is still early in the local selection process. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office has scheduled public presentations from the five proposals for that license Dec. 16.

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