Gaige Grosskreutz testifies about permanent injuries to his right arm and hand as he testifies about being shot in the right bicep during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 8, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse shot three demonstrators, killing two of them, during a night of unrest that erupted in Kenosha after a police officer shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back while police attempted to arrest him in August 2020. Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, was 17 at the time of the shooting and armed with an assault rifle. He faces counts of felony homicide and felony attempted homicide. | Getty

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” the 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz said. Asked what was going through his mind as he drew closer to the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

KENOSHA, Wis. — A protester and volunteer medic wounded on the streets of Kenosha by Kyle Rittenhouse testified Monday that he was unintentionally pointing his own gun at the rifle-toting Rittenhouse when the young man shot him.

Gaige Grosskreutz, the third and final man gunned down by Rittenhouse during a night of turbulent racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020, took the stand at Rittenhouse’s murder trial and recounted how he drew his own pistol after the bloodshed started.

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” the 27-year-old Grosskreutz said. Asked what was going through his mind as he got closer to the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

Rittenhouse shot Grosskreutz in the arm, tearing away much of his bicep — or “vaporized” it, as the witness put it.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is on trial on charges of killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz. The one-time police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois, had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the damaging demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Grosskreutz said he had his hands raised as he closed in on Rittenhouse and didn’t intend to shoot the young man. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz why he didn’t shoot first.

“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” he said. “It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.”

But during cross-examination, Rittenhouse defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked: “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him … that he fired, right?”

“Correct,” Grosskreutz replied. The defense also presented a photo showing Grosskreutz pointing the gun at Rittenhouse, who was on the ground with his rifle pointed up at Grosskreutz.

Grosskreutz, under follow-up questioning from the prosecutor, said he did not intend to point his weapon at Rittenhouse.

Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the violence. His lawyers have argued that he acted in self-defense. He could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against him.

Wisconsin’s self-defense law allows someone to use deadly force only if “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.” The jury must decide whether Rittenhouse believed he was in such peril at the time and whether that belief was reasonable under the circumstances.

Grosskreutz said he had gone to the protest in Kenosha to serve as a volunteer medic, wearing a hat that said “paramedic” and carrying medical supplies, in addition to a loaded pistol. He said his permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired and he did not have a valid one that night.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I’m for people’s right to carry and bear arms,” he said, explaining why he was armed. “And that night was no different than any other day. It’s keys, phone, wallet, gun.”

He said he went into action after seeing Rittenhouse kill a man just feet away — the second person Rittenhouse fatally shot that night.

While Grosskreutz said he never verbally threatened Rittenhouse, Chirafisi, the defense attorney, said that people don’t have to use words to threaten others. They can do so by their actions, “like running after them down the street with a loaded firearm,” Chirafisi said.

On cross-examination, Chirafisi sought to portray Grosskreutz as dishonest in his description of the moments right before he was shot, with Chirafisi asserting that Grosskreutz was chasing Rittenhouse with his gun out. Grosskreutz denied he was chasing Rittenhouse.

Chirafisi also said Grosskreutz lied when he initially told multiple police officers that he dropped his weapon.

Chirafisi also pointed to Grosskreutz’s lawsuit against the city of Kenosha, in which he alleges police enabled the violence by allowing an armed militia to have the run of the streets during the demonstration.

“If Mr. Rittenhouse is convicted, your chance of getting 10 million bucks is better, right?” Chirafisi said.

Chirafisi asked Grosskreutz if he told his former roommate that his only regret was “not killing the kid and hesitating to pull the gun before emptying the entire mag into him.” Grosskreutz said: “No, I never said that.”

At the defense table, Rittenhouse kept his eyes on Grosskreutz as he testified, taking detailed notes when the witness spoke about the moment he was shot.

Grosskreutz, who was trained as a paramedic, testified that he volunteered as a medic at protests in Milwaukee in the days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Grosskreutz said he attended around 75 protests before the night he was shot, offering help to anyone needing medical attention.

He said he provided medical assistance to about 10 other people that night in Kenosha.

While Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot, the case has stirred furious debate about the racial unrest that erupted around the U.S. that summer, as well as about vigilantism and the right to bear arms.

Last week at Rittenhouse’s trial, witnesses testified that the first man shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was “hyperaggressive” and “acting belligerently” that night and threatened to kill Rittenhouse at one point.

One witness said Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for the young man’s rifle.

Rosenbaum’s killing set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later: Rittenhouse killed Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

Grosskreutz has a tattoo on the arm where he was shot. It is the common medical image of a snake wrapped around a staff, and at the top it has a banner that says, “Do no harm” and at the bottom, a banner reading “Do know harm.”

When the prosecutor played graphic video of Grosskreutz’s badly wounded arm, a few jurors seemed to grimace and look away.

Grosskreutz testified that he has difficulty lifting heavy objects with his right arm and has a loss of feeling extending from his bicep to his thumb.

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Forliti from Minneapolis.

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People attend a makeshift memorial on November 7, 2021 at the NRG Park grounds where eight people died in a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. | Getty

They included high schoolers, an aspiring Border Patrol agent and a computer science student.

HOUSTON — Authorities on Monday released the names of the eight people who died at a Houston music festival, as investigators watched video, interviewed witnesses and reviewed procedures to try to determine what went wrong when the crowd rushed the stage during a performance by the rapper Travis Scott.

Hundreds more were injured when the tragedy unfolded at the sold-out Astroworld festival Friday night. Some 50,000 people attended the event.

Medical examiners have still not released the causes of death, which could take several weeks, said Michele Arnold, a spokeswoman with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

“It’s not the crowd’s fault at all, because there was no way you could even move, it was just like a mass loss of control,” said Ben Castro, 19. He returned to the venue Monday to leave flowers at a makeshift memorial that included notes, T-shirts and and candles. He said he didn’t know anyone had died until the next day.

The dead were between the ages of 14 and 27 and were from Texas, Illinois and Washington, according to Harris County authorities. They included high schoolers, an aspiring Border Patrol agent and a computer science student.

As young as a high school freshman and from as far away as Washington state. Authorities on Monday released the identifies of the eight people who died after fans at the Astroworld music festival in Houston suddenly pushed forward when rapper Travis Scott came on stage.

Harris County officials did not release the cause and manner in which the victims died. Michele Arnold, a spokeswoman with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences that conducts all autopsies in Harris County, said in a statement it could be weeks before that information is available.

A picture of some of the people who died emerged over the weekend as their families and friends shared stories with reporters and on social media.

The dead ranged from 14 to 27 years old, according to Houston officials. As of Sunday, 13 people remained hospitalized. Harris County officials said Monday they didn’t have updated information on those who were hospitalized.

City officials have said they are in the early stages of investigating what caused the pandemonium at the sold-out event founded by Scott and attended by about 50,000 fans.

‘LOVED HIS MOM’

Franco Patino, 21, was working toward a mechanical engineering technology degree at the University of Dayton, with a minor in human movement biomechanics, his father, Julio Patino, told The Associated Press. He was a member of Alpha Psi Lambda, a Hispanic interest fraternity, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and was working in an engineering co-op program.

Patino described his son as a charismatic, energetic leader who was active in his community and intent on helping people with disabilities. His son was working on a new medical device and wanted to find a way to help his mother walk again after she was severely injured in an automobile accident in Mexico two years ago, Patino said.

Through tears, Patino described how his son — who enjoyed weight lifting, football and rugby — used his strength to break a door and free his mom from the wreckage.

“He loved his mom,” Patino said. “He said everything that he was doing, it was trying to help his mom. The entire goal.”

Julio Patino, of Naperville, Illinois, was in London on business when the phone rang around 3 a.m. He answered it and heard his wife, Teresita, crying. She said someone had called from a hospital about Franco and that a doctor would be calling her soon. After 30 minutes, she called back with the doctor on the line.

“The doctor was giving us the news that our son had passed away,” Patino said.

Patino said he had last spoken with his son about 2 p.m. Friday, when he reassured his father he was fine.

“I just said, ‘OK, just be careful,'” Patino said.

‘HUGE HOLE IN OUR LIVES’

Jacob “Jake” Jurinek, 20, was a junior at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where he was “pursuing his passion for art and media,” his family said in a statement Sunday. He was just a over two weeks short of his 21st birthday.

He was attending the concert with Patino, his friend and former high school football teammate, according to Patino’s father, Julio Patino. He was deeply committed to his family and was known as “Big Jake” by his younger cousins.

He will be missed by his father, Ron Jurinek, with whom Jake became especially close after his mother died in 2011.

“In the decade since, Jake and Ron were inseparable – attending White Sox and Blackhawks games, sharing their love of professional wrestling, and spending weekends with extended family and friends at Jake’s favorite place, the family cottage in Southwestern Michigan,” the family’s statement said.

“We are all devastated and are left with a huge hole in our lives,” his father, Ron Jurinek, added in an emailed statement.

‘GOOD STUDENT, ATHLETE, SO POLITE’

Memorial High School ninth-grader John Hilgert, 14, was the youngest of those who died. Mourners began tying green ribbons around trees at the school over the weekend in his memory.

He was at the concert with classmate Robby Hendrix, whose mother, Tracy Faulkner, spoke with the Houston Chronicle. The boys had hoped to get a good spot to watch the show.

“Everything about that night was a tragedy,” Faulkner told the newspaper. “John was a good student and athlete and so polite. He was the sweetest and smartest young man.”

‘LIFE OF THE PARTY’

Madison Dubiski, 23, lived in Houston. She was a varsity cheerleader in high school and member of a community service group called the National Charity League, according to a former classmate who spoke to the Houston Chronicle.

“She was definitely the life of the party and loved by so many people,” Lauren Vogler told the newspaper.

She was her mom’s best friend and she loved watching her brother play sports, family friend Claudia Sierra told the Chronicle.

‘HARD-WORKING MAN’

Mirza “Danish” Baig, who identified himself on Facebook as a district manager for AT&T, and appeared to be a devoted Dallas Cowboys fan, was among those who died at the the concert, his brother Basil Baig said on Facebook.

“He was (an) innocent young soul who would always put others before him. He was a hard-working man who loved his family and took care of us. He was there in a heartbeat for anything. He always had a solution to everything,” Basil Baig told ABC News.

Baig’s funeral was held Sunday in Colleyville in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Messages left with Basil Baig were not returned.

County officials identified him as Mirza Baig, but his brother said on Facebook he went by Danish. He was 27.

LOVED TO DANCE

Brianna Rodriguez’s family told People magazine that she was among those who perished at the concert. She was 16, a student at Heights High School and loved dancing, according to the family the magazine spoke with. Her family has not responded to a message left by AP.

COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT

Axel Acosta, 21, was a computer science major at Western Washington University. His father, Edgar Acosta, told KOMO-TV his son was among the victims who died at the festival.

The school in Bellingham, Washington, released a statement Sunday: “By all accounts, Axel was a young man with a vibrant future. We are sending our condolences to his family on this very sad day.”

ASPIRING BORDER AGENT

Rodolfo “Rudy” Pena, 23, of Laredo, Texas, was a student at Laredo College and wanted to be Border Patrol agent, his friend Stacey Sarmiento said. She described him as a people person. Officials identified him as Rodolfo Pena, but friends called him Rudy.

“Rudy was a close friend of mine,” she said. “We met in high school. He was an athlete. … He brought happiness anywhere he went. He was easy to get along with. It was like positive vibes from him at all times.”

“We all came to have a good time … it was just horrible in there,” she added.

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Gaige Grosskreutz testifies about permanent injuries to his right arm and hand as he testifies about being shot in the right bicep during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 8, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse shot three demonstrators, killing two of them, during a night of unrest that erupted in Kenosha after a police officer shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back while police attempted to arrest him in August 2020. Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, was 17 at the time of the shooting and armed with an assault rifle. He faces counts of felony homicide and felony attempted homicide. | Getty

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” the 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz said. Asked what was going through his mind as he drew closer to the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

KENOSHA, Wis. — A protester and volunteer medic wounded on the streets of Kenosha by Kyle Rittenhouse testified Monday that he was pointing his own gun at the rifle-toting Rittenhouse when the young man shot him.

Gaige Grosskreutz, the third and final man gunned down by Rittenhouse during a night of turbulent racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020, took the stand at Rittenhouse’s murder trial and recounted how he drew his own pistol after the bloodshed started.

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” the 27-year-old Grosskreutz said. Asked what was going through his mind as he got closer to the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

Rittenhouse shot Grosskreutz in the arm, tearing away much of his bicep — or “vaporized” it, as the witness put it.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Grosskreutz said he had his hands raised as he closed in on Rittenhouse. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz why he didn’t shoot first.

“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” he said. “It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.”

But during cross-examination, Rittenhouse defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked: “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him … that he fired, right?”

“Correct,” Grosskreutz replied.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is on trial on charges of killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz. The one-time police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois, had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the damaging demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the violence. His lawyers have argued that he acted in self-defense. He could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against him.

Grosskreutz said he had gone to the protest in Kenosha to serve as a volunteer medic, wearing a hat that said “paramedic” and carrying medical supplies, in addition to a loaded pistol.

Grosskreutz said his permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired and he did not have a valid permit that night.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I’m for people’s right to carry and bear arms,” he said, explaining why he was armed. “And that night was no different than any other day. It’s keys, phone, wallet, gun.”

He said he went into action after seeing Rittenhouse kill a man just feet away — the second person Rittenhouse fatally shot that night.

On cross-examination, Chirafisi sought to portray Grosskreutz as dishonest in his description of the moments right before he was shot, with Chirafisi asserting that Grosskreutz was chasing Rittenhouse with his gun out.

Grosskreutz denied he was chasing Rittenhouse and said that he was concerned about Rittenhouse’s safety after seeing others chase him and someone try to kick him.

Chirafisi also pointed to Grosskreutz’s lawsuit against the city of Kenosha, in which he alleges police enabled the violence by allowing an armed militia to have the run of the streets during the demonstration.

“If Mr. Rittenhouse is convicted, your chance of getting 10 million bucks is better, right?” Chirafisi said.

At the defense table, Rittenhouse kept his eyes on Grosskreutz as he testified, taking detailed notes when the witness spoke about the moment he was shot.

One juror nodded her head in agreement when the judge instructed the jury to disregard Grosskreutz’s referring to Rittenhouse’s fatal shooting of another protester as a “murder. “

Grosskreutz, who was trained as a paramedic, testified that he volunteered as a medic at protests in Milwaukee in the days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Grosskreutz said he attended around 75 protests before the night he was shot, offering help to anyone needing medical attention.

He said he provided medical assistance to about 10 other people that night in Kenosha.

Rittenhouse is white, as are the three men he shot, but the case has stirred furious debate about racial justice, policing, vigilantism and the right to bear arms.

In the first week of Rittenhouse’s trial, witnesses testified that the first man shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was “hyperaggressive” and “acting belligerently” that night and threatened to kill Rittenhouse at one point.

One witness said Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for the young man’s rifle.

Rosenbaum’s killing set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later: Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted.

Grosskreutz has a tattoo on the arm where he was shot. It is the common medical image of a snake wrapped around a staff, and at the top it has a banner that says, “Do no harm” and at the bottom, a banner reading “Do know harm.”

When the prosecutor played graphic video of Grosskreutz’s badly wounded arm, a few jurors seemed to grimace and look away from monitors in the courtroom.

Grosskreutz testified that he has difficulty lifting heavy objects with his right arm and has a loss of feeling extending from his bicep to his thumb.

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Forliti from Minneapolis.

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Richard Carpenter poses at his home in Thousand Oaks, California, earlier this year. A new book on the Carpenters takes a look back at nearly every rainy day and Monday of the legendary pop duo’s career. | AP

The book has the heft and visual history of a coffee table book, but it’s also a nearly note-for-note musical biography of the pair that goes back to their childhood lives in New Haven, Connecticut

LOS ANGELES — “Every sha-la-la-la, every wo-o-wo-o still shines,” the Carpenters’ sang in “Yesterday Once More,” their hit 1973 tribute to the songs of the past.

It could be the tagline of a new book on the work of Richard and Karen Carpenter, which seeks to set aside the noise surrounding the duo and focus on their harmonic creations.

“Carpenters: The Musical Legacy” (Princeton Architectural Press), coming 50 years after the duo’s earliest hits, was co-written by Richard Carpenter, along with Associated Press journalist Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May.

AP
Karen and Richard Carpenter pose with their Grammys during the 14th annual 1971 Grammy Awards at New York’s Felt Forum, in this March 14, 1972 file photo.

Carpenter has passed on many retrospective projects, after facing decades of questions about his sister’s inner life and her death in 1983 from heart failure, a complication of anorexia, at age 32. This was a chance to do something different.

“It was the focus on the music itself, that’s primarily it,” Carpenter told the AP as he sat at his piano in his Southern California home. “It touches on things that we hadn’t touched on before or that if we had, it had been ignored.”

It has the heft and visual history of a coffee table book, but it’s also a nearly note-for-note musical biography of the pair that goes back to their childhood lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where Richard Carpenter found the seeds of the group’s sound in his father’s records and a toy jukebox.

He cites some unexpected influences, including another man-and-woman duo, Les Paul and Mary Ford, whose early experimenting with vocal overdubs and layered harmonies electrified him.

“It made a profound impression on me, that ooh-ah, ooh-ah. I was maybe 5 or 6,” Carpenter said. “I had no idea how all this was done. I just knew it was different and that I really liked it. And many years later, of course, it came up in my mind while I was arranging a lot of things that I wrote the harmonies for.”

He credits a less famous name with a well-known sound, choral arranger Judd Conlon, whose work appeared in Disney’s “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

“His arranging style for multi-vocals was tight,” Carpenter said. “They were very close harmonies, which had a great big effect on me.”

The book makes clear that their elaborate, multi-layered recordings were made while the young duo maintained a staggering schedule of touring and television appearances.

AP Photos
Richard Carpenter smiles as he poses with his new book: “Carpenters: The Musical Legacy.” The book, co-written by Carpenter, along with Associated Press journalist Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May, takes a look back at the pop duo’s career.

It gives an accounting of nearly every rainy day and Monday they spent in a hectic 1970, the year “(They Long to Be) Close to You” became their breakthrough hit. Somehow amid it all they recorded their third album, 1971’s “Carpenters,” known to fans as the tan album and regarded by many as their best.

The Carpenters were often derided as makers of schmaltzy throwaway hits. But the book argues they were great creators of fully formed albums, with an incredible run of records between 1970’s “Close to You” and 1973’s “Now & Then,” the concept album that solidified their global stardom.

“We had so many hit singles, and usually right in a row, that we tended to be dismissed again by our detractors as a singles band,” Carpenter said. “We sold millions of albums.”

Carpenter’s ear for finding hits, often in unlikely places, was as essential as his ear for making them.

He found “Superstar,” the Carpenters song probably most beloved of younger generations, when he heard Bette Midler sing it on “The Tonight Show.” He came across “We’ve Only Just Begun” in a bank commercial before they made it a hit.

When he heard them, he knew just what to do with them.

“If the song hit me, whether it was one of mine or say one that I’d heard, like ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ or ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ or ‘Superstar,’ if the song had it, my arrangement just took place immediately,” Carpenter said.

And he knew a song was useless if it didn’t match his sister’s stunning alto voice.

“I could give you a list of songs that I heard on the radio that I went right out and bought and yet knew would not work for Karen and me,” he said. “That we were brother and sister just had a whole lot to do with it.”

He also reconsidered his musical catalog on the forthcoming “Richard Carpenter’s Piano Songbook.” He reimagines several of the band’s biggest hits for solo piano on the album slated for a January release.

Amid all the looking back, Carpenter recently made his first visit in some 30 years back to what was once the studios of A&M Records in Hollywood. It now belongs to Jim Henson Company and the Muppets, who have changed it very little.

It was an emotional trip.

“We spent so much of our lives there that it was just like returning home,” he said.

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Neil Bluhm, chairman of Rivers Casino, chats with a reporter during the public opening of BetRivers Sportsbook in March 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Bluhm’s Rush Street Gaming company is part of two separate groups vying to build a Chicago casino — and his Des Plaines-based Rivers Casino has a sports book that could lose business if sports betting is legalized in Chicago.

Chicago casino magnate Neil Bluhm has lined up a team of blue-ribbon lobbyists to try and convince the City Council not to lift the ban on sports betting in Chicago.

On Monday, Bluhm is poised to make the argument himself during a subject matter hearing on sports betting in Chicago. It’s the political equivalent of a heavyweight boxing match that has pitted Chicago sports team owners against those vying to build a Chicago casino.

Bluhm’s interest in blocking the ordinance is two-fold. His Rush Street Gaming company is part of two separate groups vying to build a Chicago casino.

And his Des Plaines-based Rivers Casino already has a sports book that stands to lose business if sports betting is legalized in Chicago.

Bluhm has personally registered as a lobbyist and lined up a high-powered team of lobbyists to join him in trying to kill or, at the very least stall the sports betting ordinance championed by Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), whose ward includes the United Center.

Those lobbyists include: John Dunn, who spent eight years as intergovernmental affairs director for former Mayor Richard M. Daley; former Ald. LaTasha Thomas (17th); Mike Houlihan, son of former Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan; Patrick Carey; Rolando Acosta and Patrick Carey.

Two months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that John R. Daley — son of Cook County Commissioner John Daley and a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley — is working as a lobbyist for the White Sox as the team, acting in concert with the Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls, pushes for the City Council to let all of them open sports wagering facilities at or near their stadiums.

That’s even though John R. Daley’s first cousin Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson represents the family’s political base, the South Side’s 11th Ward that’s home to the Sox ballpark, Guaranteed Rate Field. Sources say another lobbyist, not Daley, has been assigned to lobby the alderman on behalf of the Sox.

Thompson — a grandson and nephew of Chicago’s two longest-serving mayors — has been supportive of the proposal to allow sports betting at stadiums and arenas in discussions with fellow aldermen, lobbyists and others in recent months, sources say.

The roster of high-powered lobbyists representing the Blackhawks, the United Center or the Wirtz family also includes: Mike Noonan; former city corporation counsel Mara Georges; Amy Degnan; Guy Chipparoni; Richard Velasquez, Ken Sawyer and Gyata Kimmons.

Sports moguls laid out their argument to lift the Chicago ban on sports betting in a flier distributed to aldermen in advance of Monday’s hearing.

It estimates that “direct and indirect tax revenue to the state, county and city from sports wagering” would “exceed $79 million annually.”

“Without action, Chicago would continue to lose patrons to sports wagering facilities outside the city limits or utilize mobile betting services,” the flier states.

“The city would also miss out on incremental job creation as well as incidental food, beverage and amusement tax revenues.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has expressed concern that lifting the Chicago ban on sports betting could “cannibalize” the Chicago casino that has eluded her predecessors for decades.

That’s apparently why the Chicago Park District refused to engage in good faith discussions with the Chicago Bears on their year-long request to create a mecca for sports betting near Soldier Field.

The spurned request is yet another reason why the team has signed an agreement to purchase the 326-acre site of the now-shuttered Arlington International Racecourse for $197.2 million.

Bluhm’s company signaled it was all-in on a Chicago proposal last month when it pulled out of the running for another new casino slated to break ground in Waukegan.

He has long been considered a shoo-in to apply for the city casino license, given his success running the state’s most lucrative gambling mecca, Rivers Casino in Des Plaines — in addition to his close ties to the mayor. Lightfoot has received more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from Bluhm’s daughter Leslie and her sister Meredith Bluhm-Wolf.

Bluhm is a key player in the development group that seeks to open a temporary, then permanent Chicago casino at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center after adding 2,000 parking spaces making “significant capital improvements” to that aging and seldom-used facility.

That plan would require the development team to secure a “very long-term ground lease” with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns McCormick Place.

Bluhm’s second hand in the Chicago casino game is a partnership with development firm Related Midwest as Rivers 78 Gaming LLC. That proposal aims to break ground within the 62 vacant South Loop acres near Roosevelt Road and Clark Street. Specifics on that proposal have yet to be announced.

The Cubs have forged a $100 million partnership with DraftKings that could pave the way for Wrigley Field to house the first stadium sportsbook in Major League Baseball. But, it can’t happen unless the City Council lifts the ban on sports betting in Chicago.

Burnett’s ordinance would do just that.

Under the plan, sports betting would be authorized at Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Soldier Field, the United Center and Wintrust Arena or in a “permanent building or structure located within a five-block radius” of those stadiums.

Sports wagering would also be authorized inside inter-track wagering facilities and inside a Chicago casino,

No more than 15 kiosks or wagering windows would be allowed at each location unless bettors can also purchase food and drink.

No one under age 21 would be allowed to place a bet. Sports wagering would be prohibited from midnight to 10 a.m., Monday through Thursday; midnight Friday to 9 a.m. Saturday; and 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

The city would issue two types of sports wagering licenses: “primary” and “secondary.” Primary sports licenses would start at $50,000 a year and cost $25,000 for annual renewal. Secondary sports licenses would start at $10,000, with an annual renewal fee of $5,000.

On the day Burnett introduced the ordinance, Lightfoot described sports betting as “the law of our state.” She said she did not believe sports betting would “undercut our efforts on a future casino and we’re gonna make sure that it doesn’t.”

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At least nine people were killed and 40 others wounded by gunfire in Chicago this weekend. | Sun-times file

Two of the fatal shootings occurred about 10 minutes apart in University Village and Bronzeville early Sunday.

At least 10 people were killed and 42 others — including a 4-year-old boy — were wounded by gunfire in Chicago over the weekend.

More than half of the gunshot victims were wounded on the South Side, while nearly a quarter of the victims were shot on the West Side.

It was the deadliest weekend in Chicago since the last weekend in September, when 10 were killed and 58 wounded in citywide attacks.

16-year-old killed in Garfield Park drive-by

The youngest homicide victim this past weekend was a 16-year-old boy shot late Saturday morning inside Garfield Park on the West Side. Lasean Morris and a man were on the street around noon when someone fired 11 rounds from a passing white Jeep Grand Cherokee in the 3400 block of West Madison Street, Chicago police said.

Morris was shot in his head and foot and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died Sunday afternoon, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. The other man, 25, was struck in the leg and taken to the same hospital, where he was stabilized.

Police reported no arrests.

4-year-old wounded in South Chicago

A 4-year-old boy was seriously wounded Friday evening when someone fired a gun during an argument in the South Chicago neighborhood.

The boy’s mother had doubled parked her car around 5:45 p.m. to drop off items in the 8300 block of South Saginaw Avenue when people from two homes on opposite sides of the street began arguing, police said. Someone fired a gun and the bullet went through the mother’s car’s windshield, striking the boy in his hand and lodging itself in his thigh, police said.

The mother drove her son to South Shore Hospital in serious condition, police said. He was later transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital, where his condition was upgraded to good.

Police were still looking for people involved in the argument and video of the incident.

Man killed in University Village

Sunday morning, a man was killed and a woman wounded in University Village on the Near West Side. The man, 21, was standing outside about 12:10 a.m. in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street when someone fired shots from a passing dark-colored sedan, striking him in the back, police said. He was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, police said. His name hasn’t been released. A 38-year-old woman sitting nearby was struck in the jaw and was taken to the same hospital in good condition.

Bronzeville murder

About 10 minutes later, a man was killed and a woman wounded in Bronzeville on the South Side. The two were in the 4600 block of South King Drive about 12:20 a.m. when gunfire erupted after an argument between the man and a group of males, police said. The argument started after someone stepped on the woman’s shoes, police said.

The 25-year-old man was shot in the neck, arm and torso and was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said. His name hasn’t been released. The woman, 27, was shot in the chin and was taken to the same hospital in fair condition.

Man, 77, fatally shoots would-be robber on South Side

A 77-year-old man with a concealed carry license fatally shot a robber Saturday afternoon in Burnside on the South Side. About 12:20 p.m., the man was in a garage in the 500 block of East 89th Street when a car pulled up in the alley and a gunman got out and demanded his belongings, police said. The man shot at the robber, fatally striking him in the head and chest, police said. The man was not injured.

Fatal shooting in West Englewood

Another man was fatally shot Friday night while driving in the West Englewood neighborhood. Reginald Benson, 29, was driving around 6 p.m. in the 2100 block of West 71st Street when two people got out of the car behind him and began shooting, police said. A shot went through the rear window of the car and struck Benson in the back of the head, police said. He died at the scene.

Man killed during argument in Belmont Central

A man was fatally shot a few hours later after a fight over a car blocking his garage in Belmont Central on the Northwest Side. Karl Washington, 36, and another man were arguing over the other man’s car blocking his garage around 9:50 p.m. Friday in the 2600 block of North Mobile Avenue, police said. The gunman shoved Washington and shot him in the back before driving away. He was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center.

South Austin murder

A few hours later, a man was shot and killed in South Austin on the West Side. The 21-year-old was outside in the 5200 block of West Adams Street about 11:50 p.m. when he was shot multiple times, police said. He was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.

Little Village homicide

A man was found fatally shot Saturday morning in Little Village on the West Side. The 31-year-old was found unresponsive with gunshot wounds to the head and body about 3:30 a.m. in the 2600 block of South Keeler Avenue, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died. His name hasn’t been released.

McKinley Park fatal shooting

A man was fatally shot Sunday afternoon in McKinley Park on the South Side. The 22-year-old was in a parking lot about 4:10 p.m. in the 3100 block of South Ashland Avenue when someone shot him multiple times, police said. He was taken to Stroger, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He has not been identified.

Brighton Park homicide

A man was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday night in Brighton Park. The 26-year-old was getting into his car about 10:15 p.m. in the 2900 block of West 44th Place when someone in a passing black Chrysler 300 began shooting at him, police said. He was struck in the head and leg and was taken to Mount Sinai, where he was pronounced dead.

At least 39 other people were wounded in shootings in Chicago from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

Last weekend, at least 28 people were hit by gunfire in Chicago, six of them fatally.

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Gaige Grosskreutz is sworn in before he testifies about being shot in the right bicep during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. | AP

Gaige Grosskreutz, the third and final man gunned down by Rittenhouse with a rifle during a night of turbulent racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020, took the stand at Rittenhouse’s murder trial and recounted how he drew his own pistol to try to stop the bloodshed.

KENOSHA, Wis. — A protester and volunteer medic wounded on the streets of Kenosha by Kyle Rittenhouse testified Monday that he was pointing his own gun at the rifle-toting Rittenhouse when the young man shot him.

Gaige Grosskreutz, the third and final man gunned down by Rittenhouse with a rifle during a night of turbulent racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020, took the stand at Rittenhouse’s murder trial and recounted how he drew his own pistol to try to stop the bloodshed.

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” the 27-year-old Grosskreutz said. Asked what was going through his mind as he drew closer to the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

Rittenhouse shot and seriously wounded him in the arm, tearing away much of Grosskreutz’s bicep.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz why he didn’t shoot first.

“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” he said. “It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.”

But under cross-examination by one of Rittenhouse’s lawyers, Grosskreutz answered “correct” when asked if his pistol was pointed at Rittenhouse just before Rittenhouse fired.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is on trial on charges of killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz. The one-time police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois, had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the damaging demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed. His lawyers have argued that he acted in self-defense. He could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against him.

Grosskreutz said he had gone to the protest in the streets of Kenosha that night to serve as a volunteer medic. Grosskreutz said he was wearing a hat that said “paramedic” and was carrying medical supplies, in addition to a loaded pistol.

Grosskreutz said his permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired and he did not have a valid permit that night.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I’m for people’s right to carry and bear arms,” he said, explaining why he was armed. “And that night was no different than any other day. It’s keys, phone, wallet, gun.”

He said he went into action after seeing Rittenhouse kill a man just feet away — the second person Rittenhouse fatally shot that night.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi sought to portray Grosskreutz as dishonest in his description of the moments right before he was shot, with Chirafisi asserting that Grosskreutz was chasing Rittenhouse with his gun out.

Grosskreutz denied he was chasing Rittenhouse and said that he was concerned about Rittenhouse’s safety after seeing others chase him and someone try to kick him.

Chirafisi also pointed to Grosskreutz’s lawsuit against the city of Kenosha, in which he alleges police enabled the violence by allowing an armed militia to have the run of the streets during the demonstration.

“If Mr. Rittenhouse is convicted, your chance of getting 10 million bucks is better, right?” Chirafisi said.

At the defense table, Rittenhouse kept his eyes on Grosskreutz as he testified, taking detailed notes when the witness spoke about the moment he was shot.

Earlier that night, Grosskreutz was recording on his cellphone for a livestream when he heard gunshots a few blocks away. He heard people yelling for a medic, and began running toward the sound of the gunfire.

The video played in court showed Grosskreutz coming upon Rittenhouse as Rittenhouse was running away. He asked him what Rittenhouse was doing and if someone was shot. Rittenhouse replied: “I’m going to the police. I didn’t do anything.” At the time, Grosskreutz testified, he thought Rittenhouse said, “I’m working with the police.”

Grosskreutz ran along with Rittenhouse for a few seconds, then turned to go help whoever might have been shot. But then Grosskreutz turned back toward Rittenhouse because he heard people saying Rittenhouse had shot someone.

One juror nodded her head in agreement when the judge instructed the jury to disregard Grosskreutz’s referring to Rittenhouse’s fatal shooting of another protester as a “murder. “

Grosskreutz, who was trained as a paramedic, testified that he volunteered as a medic at protests in Milwaukee in the days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Grosskreutz said he attended around 75 protests before the night he was shot, offering help to anyone needing medical attention.

He said he provided medical assistance to about 10 other people that night in Kenosha.

Rittenhouse is white, as are the three men he shot, but the case has stirred furious debate about racial justice, policing, vigilantism and the right to bear arms.

In the first week of Rittenhouse’s trial, witnesses testified that the first man shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was “hyperaggressive” and “acting belligerently” that night and threatened to kill Rittenhouse at one point.

One witness said Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for the young man’s rifle.

Rosenbaum’s killing set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later: Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted.

Grosskreutz has a tattoo on the arm where he was shot. It is the common medical image of a snake wrapped around a staff, and at the top it has a banner that says, “Do no harm” and at the bottom, a banner reading “Do know harm.”

When the prosecutor played graphic video of Grosskreutz’s badly wounded arm, a few jurors seemed to grimace and look away from monitors in the courtroom.

Grosskreutz testified that he has difficulty lifting heavy objects with his right arm and has a loss of feeling extending from his bicep to his thumb.

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Forliti from Minneapolis.

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Kyle Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha last year. | Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP pool

Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, who had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse, was shot in the arm moments after Rittenhouse fatally shot two others in the streets of Kenosha.

KENOSHA, Wis. — A witness at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial testified Monday that he confronted a rifle-toting Rittenhouse with a gun of his own to try to stop the bloodshed, and thought he was going to die as he closed in on the young man.

Gaige Grosskreutz, who said he had gone to the racial-justice protest in the streets of Kenosha to serve as a volunteer medic that night, ended up getting shot and seriously wounded in the arm by Rittenhouse.

Grosskreutz, 27, went into action after seeing Rittenhouse kill a man just feet away — the second person Rittenhouse fatally shot that night.

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” Grosskreutz said, recounting how he pulled out the pistol he had holstered.

Asked what was going through his mind as he neared the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, he said, “That I was going to die.”

Rittenhouse, now 18, is on trial on charges of killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz in Kenosha during a turbulent protest in the summer of 2020.

The one-time police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois, had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the damaging demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Grosskreutz had a gun in has hand, with his arms raised, when Rittenhouse fired, shooting him in the bicep. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz, who had his hands in the air just before Rittenhouse shot him, why he didn’t shoot first.

“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” he said. “It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.”

Grosskreutz said he was wearing a hat that night that said “paramedic” and was carrying medical supplies, in addition to a loaded pistol. Grosskreutz said his permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired and he did not have a valid permit that night.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I’m for people’s right to carry and bear arms,” he said, explaining why he was armed. “And that night was no different than any other day. It’s keys, phone, wallet, gun.”

When the prosecutor played graphic video of Grosskreutz’s badly wounded arm, with much of his bicep torn away by the bullet, a few jurors seemed to grimace and look away from monitors in the courtroom.

At the defense table, Rittenhouse took detailed notes when Grosskreutz spoke about the moment he was shot. Rittenhouse otherwise displayed little emotion as he glanced up at the footage.

Earlier that night, Grosskreutz was recording on his cellphone for a livestream when he heard gunshots a few blocks away. He heard people yelling for a medic, and began running toward the sound of the gunfire.

The video played in court showed Grosskreutz coming upon Rittenhouse as Rittenhouse was running away. He asked him what he was doing and if someone was shot. Rittenhouse replied: “I’m going to the police. I didn’t do anything.” At the time, Grosskreutz testified, he thought Rittenhouse said, “I’m working with the police.”

Grosskreutz ran along with Rittenhouse for a few seconds, then turned to go help whoever might have been shot. But then Grosskreutz turned back toward Rittenhouse because he heard people saying Rittenhouse had shot someone.

In the courtroom, Rittenhouse kept his eyes on Grosskreutz as he testified. When asked questions by prosecutors, Grosskreutz turned and looked straight at the jurors, who sat just feet away.

One juror nodded her head in agreement when the judge instructed the jury to disregard Grosskreutz’s referring to Rittenhouse’s fatal shooting of another protester as a “murder. “

Grosskreutz, who was trained as a paramedic, testified that he volunteered as a medic at protests in Milwaukee in the days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Grosskreutz said he attended around 75 protests before the night he was shot, offering help to anyone needing medical attention.

He said he provided medical assistance to about 10 other people that night in Kenosha.

Grosskreutz is suing the city and county in federal court, alleging police enabled the violence by allowing an armed militia to have the run of the streets during the demonstration.

Rittenhouse is white, as are the three men he shot, but the case has raised polarizing questions about racial justice, policing, vigilantism and the right to bear arms.

Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed. Rittenhouse’s lawyer has argued that he acted in self-defense, suggesting among other things that Rittenhouse feared his weapon would be taken and used against him.

In the first week of Rittenhouse’s trial, witnesses testified that the first man shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was “hyperaggressive” and “acting belligerently” that night and threatened to kill Rittenhouse at one point.

One witness said Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for the young man’s rifle.

Rosenbaum’s killing set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later: Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted.

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Forliti from Minneapolis.

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