A 26-year-old man was charged with attempted murder in connection with a shooting that wounded a Chicago police officer and two people Friday in South Shore on the South Side.

Aaron Jenkins was charged with two felony counts of attempted first degree murder, and aggravated battery with a firearm, Chicago police said.

A 30-year-old officer was on patrol late Friday when she heard the gunfire and rushed to the 1900 block of East 72nd Place, where she saw a person lying in the middle of the street, police said.

The officer was getting out of her squad car to render aid when additional shots were fired, striking her in the legs, police said. She got back into her squad car and another officer took her to University of Chicago Medical Center.

Police released few details of the shooting, but said it happened around 10:50 p.m. as Third District officers were responding to a call and found a 25-year-old man on the ground.

The 25-year-old was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center with several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead, police said. A 15-year-old boy also found at the scene was shot in the legs and was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in fair condition.

Jenkins was taken into custody Saturday in the 7200 block of South Jeffery Boulevard, after being identified as the person who allegedly fired shots, police said.

He is due in bond court Monday.

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CLEVELAND — All kinds of emotions enwrapped Odell Beckham Jr. from the moment he sprinted out of the tunnel to a roaring ovation.

A few hours later, he had nothing left.

“Exhausted,” Beckham said, sliding into a chair for his postgame news conference. “I lost my voice and I wasn’t even screaming, so I don’t know what happened. I’m exhausted. It’s time to go home.”

Almost 11 months since his 2020 season ended in Cincinnati with a knee injury that cost him a playoff appearance and sparked debate about his value, Beckham returned to the field Sunday, He made an immediate impact as the Browns thrashed the Bears 26-6.

Beckham caught five passes from Baker Mayfield for 77 yards, added 10 yards rushing and provided a glimpse of what he could mean going forward for Cleveland’s offense — a scoring threat from anywhere on the field.

For Beckham, the grueling rehab sessions, the hours of weight-room work and the dedication paid off. His comeback’s complete — at last. But there were a few times he felt overwhelmed by its ending.

“There has been so much made of the first game back,” he said. “I try to downplay it but everyone else close to you and the people around you, the whole kind of vibe. You are trying not to think about it and then it gets put on you.

“I came out and tried not to go crazy in warmup or anything. Just get my legs underneath me. I got to the game, and I swear I just felt like each play I could not get them underneath me. A lot of things to look at the film and improve on, and that is all we can do.”

Although it may not have reached his high standards, Beckham’s first game since Oct. 25 impressed his teammates.

“He’s back like he never left,” said running back Kareem Hunt, who had 155 yards and a 26-yard touchdown run. “I told him that. He looked great out there. Looking forward to seeing many more.”

Browns star defensive end Myles Garrett said Beckham had every right to be worn out.

“He’s more tired than me,” said Garrett, who recorded a career-high 4 1/2 sacks. “He looked good. You saw him, those hands are immaculate and the guy’s a hell of a route runner, so just love being able to watch him.”

One play before Beckham’s first reception — a 13-yard grab, appropriately matching his jersey number — he was pulled down from behind on an incomplete pass. It was the 28-year-old’s first significant contact in a game since being hurt last year, and for a second he feared he might be injured again.

“Needed it,” said of the contact. “First hit came on a pass that I did not catch, and my shoulder popped out. I was like, all right of course something like that would happen. It was good to feel that and get back into it.

“The game went on, and it was a little bit smoother.”

Later, he was asked to clarify what happened to his shoulder and what he meant about not having his legs.

“Football stuff. Shoulder pop out, put it back in, keep playing,” Beckham said. “Like I was saying, it’s like a boxer who you can’t get your legs underneath you, you don’t have the same bounce. It’s not a lack of explosion or anything like that, it’s just that first-game emotions, energy, everything kinda running through you.”

Beckham was hyped before his hyped return.

He took the field for pregame warmups wearing gold-colored headphones and a Jarvis “Juice” Landry” T-shirt to honor his injured teammate and close friend, who went on injured reserve last week with a sprained knee.

“I had the shirt before any incident went down, I was going to wear it regardless, but it just seemed fitting,” he said.

At one point before the game, Beckham jumped into the first rows of seats to celebrate with his brother, who had flown into see him play.

“It was amazing,” Beckham said. “We just kind of embraced each other like the moment we’ve talked about this whole 10 1/2 months and it’s finally here.”

When Beckham went down last year, the Browns took off and made the playoffs without him. His absence spawned theories that Mayfield is better off not having Beckham.

But the two worked on their chemistry during the offseason and Beckham said he felt the connection in his return.

“We hit a couple throws, things I could definitely work on,” he said. “Glad to get that one out the way.”

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After the Bears’ debacle against the Browns, Patrick Finley, Jason Lieser and Mark Potash break down Matt Nagy’s mistakes, Justin Fields’ performance and just how far the Bears have to go to improve.

New episodes of “Halas Intrigue” will be published regularly with accompanying stories collected on the podcast’s hub page. You can also listen to “Halas Intrigue” wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Luminary, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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Stage and screen veteran Lois Smith, a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member, won her first Tony Award on Sunday for her brief but memorable performance in “The Inheritance.”

At 90, she is the oldest person ever to win a Tony for acting, according to the New York Times.

In “The Inheritance,” Smith plays a major featured role that doesn’t appear onstage until late in the play’s two-show, seven-hour running time. Matthew Lopez’s epic uses “Howards End” as a starting point for a play that looks at gay life in the early 21st century

In her acceptance speech, Smith said, “There’s a famous two-word message from ‘Howards End,’ which is so apt, I think, tonight for all of us who are here celebrating the importance, the functions, of live theater: ‘Only connect.’ “

Lois Smith appears opposite Samuel H. Levine in “The Inheritance” on Broadway.Polk & Co.

“The Inheritance” ran on Broadway from September 2019 and March 2020. Smith played a role originated by Vanessa Redgrave in the show’s premiere in London.

This was Smith’s third Tony nomination. Her first came in 1990 for work as Ma Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath,” an acclaimed production directed by Frank Galati that originated at Steppenwolf in Chicago.

She joined the Steppenwolf ensemble in 1993.

Lois Smith won her first Tony Award nomination for starring with Gary Sinise (left) and Terry Kinney in “The Grapes of Wrath.”Sun-Times file

Another Steppenwolf production, of Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child,” earned Smith her second nomination after its Broadway transfer in 1996.

Smith’s movie career dates back to 1955, which she made her film debut in the classic “East of Eden.” Her later credits included “Five Easy Pieces,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Lady Bird.”

Two other artists with local roots were honored for their work on “Jagged Little Pill,” based on Alanis Morissette’s 1995 breakthrough album.

Lauren Patten from Downers Grove won the featured actress in a musical Tony, and Lemont native Diablo Cody was honored for writing the show’s book.

Other big winners early in the Tony telecast were Danny Burstein, whose featured actor in a musical award was one of several for “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” and “A Christmas Carol,” which won multiple technical awards.

David Alan Grier won featured actor in a play for his role in a “A Soldier’s Play.” “To my other nominees: Tough banana, I won,” he said.

Contributing: AP

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CLEVELAND — Bears star Khalil Mack sprained his left foot in the first quarter Sunday, sat out the second quarter and then returned for the entire second half.

He sacked Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield on the first drive of the third quarter and finished with two sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits.

“It’s big, when a guy obviously is hurting, whatever the case may be, to come out there and show that he’s really dedicated to his teammates and doing whatever it takes to get out on the field,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “So you tip your hat to the guy. The guy is a warrior and he fights every day.”

After posting nine sacks last season, Mack has three in three games. Fellow outside linebacker Robert Quinn has four total after getting 1 1/2 against the Browns. The two have often rushed side-by-side on obvious passing downs under new coordinator Sean Desai; last year, they were on opposite ends of the line.

“It seems to give offenses a headache,” Quinn said. “Who are they going to double-team? … So I think it’s just a nice little change up every now and again to give the offense some problems. But we gotta make sure it’s effective and make sure it can affect the game in a good way.”

Mack has missed only two games in his Bears career — back-to-back contests in 2019.

Go for it?

Behind 13-3 late in the third quarter, the Bears faced fourth-and-2 at the Browns’ 4. Nagy said he considered going for it — briefly — before deciding to send Cairo Santos out to kick a 22-yard field goal to cut the lead to seven.

“At that point, too, the points were hard,” Nagy said. “And to be able to get that back to a one-score game was the ‘why’ part. To come out of there with nothing would have been a little bit deflating.”

Nagy said it “may have been a little different” were it fourth-and-1. He noticed quarterback Justin Fields lobbying to go for it.

“I do like the fact [Fields] wants to be aggressive,” Nagy said. “But we also have to be smart, too.”

This and that

Illinois alum Chase McLaughlin made a 57-yard field goal in the second quarter, the longest ever by a Browns kicker at FirstEnergy Stadium. “It was not my best hit,” he said. “But it felt good.”
Making his first start since 2018 because of Tashaun Gipson’s hamstring injury, safety Deon Bush made six tackles. On the first play of the game, he broke up a pass.
In his first game back after serving a two-game suspension for violation the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, defensive lineman Mario Edwards recorded a sack in the second quarter.
Inside linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe left the game with a right hamstring strain.

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CLEVELAND — The Bears gave us a glimpse of the future Sunday.

Not Justin Fields, the rookie quarterback who has a long way to go in Matt Nagy’s offense to reach his potential. But the Bears’ defense, which got off to an impressive start against the Browns, wilted under the immense pressure of carrying a team with an unworkable offense and ended up in an ominous state following a another credible performance in another dubious Bears loss — another day older.

Nagy’s Bears have been wasting the best years of their Vic Fangio-built defense for three-plus years now. But Sunday’s 26-6 loss to the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium was the biggest step towards an uncomfortable scenario — by the time Nagy ever gets this discombobulated offense on track, the Bears’ defense will be too old and too far from its glory days to take advantage of it.

For a while, the Bears were putting as much heat on Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield as the Brown’ defense put on the beleaguered Fields. The Bears sacked Mayfield on three of the Browns first four drives and five times in their first seven, with no cheapies.

Robert Quinn/Angelo Blackson and Khalil Mack had fourth-down sacks on the Browns’ first two drives that turned the ball over. Mario Edwards, Mack again and Quinn again continued the barrage. But the offense couldn’t take advantage of it, and ultimately the defense paid the price.

It wasn’t for lack of effort. Mack suffered a sprained foot in the first quarter, went to the locker room for treatment and played through it throughout the second half.

“I know this: when you’re getting those stops on fourth down — they’re going for it and you’re getting sacks — there’s a juice on the sideline. There’s an energy. There’s a vibe,” Nagy said. “And then to not be able to take advantage of that is the part where you feel like, ‘OK, that can’t happen.’

But it did. Over and over and over.

“When it kept happening on offense and we weren’t getting first downs and weren’t getting touchdowns and they kept getting stops,” Nagy said, “in the end you get into that third … fourth quarter, it just wears you down.”

Indeed it did. It seemed to start late in the second quarter, with the game tied 3-3, when right tackle Germain Ifedi was penalized for a false start on third-and-1 at the Bears 43-yard line. Fields was sacked on third-and-six and the Browns responded with a 12-play, 89-yard touchdown drive, capped by Mayfield’s 13-yard pass to tight end Austin Hooper that gave the Browns a 10-3 lead at halftime.

The defense wore down from there, finally breaking in the fourth quarter when safety Eddie Jackson whiffed on a tackle at the 20-yard line on Kareem Hunt’s 27-yard touchdown run — after Deon Bush had missed Hunt in the backfield. That made gave the Browns 20-6 lead with 14:46 to play — insurmountable on this day.

The Browns’ offensive numbers made the Bears’ defense look bad instead of valiant — 418 total yards and 215 rushing yards on 42 carries. The Browns rushed for 101 yards against a beaten Bears defense in the fourth quarter to close it out.

It put the defense in an uncomfortable spot. The offense was the obvious culprit, but the players can’t acknowledge that.

“It’s offense and defense and we all stick together,” Smith said. “It’s not about singling anything out or trying to make one [side] look better than the other.

“We all have a job. My job is to play defense and go out there every time the defense is up and try to make play and put the ball in the offense’s hands. And I’m sure everyone else on defense will say the same.”

It’s a tough spot for them. The questions have to be asked. And the Bears’ proud defensive players handle them well. But among the many things left unsaid is that time is running out.

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