The ChicagoBulls’ draft luck ran out after they were selected eighth in the NBA draft lottery after giving their first-round pick to the Orlando Magic but they still have the 38th overall pick in the draft to work with. The Chicago Bulls need to be smart with their one pick in the 2021 Draft. […]
Chicago police work the scene where four people were shot in the 7000 block of South Indiana Ave, in the Park Manor neighborhood, Saturday, June 26, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Two women, both 28, and two men, both 31, were standing outside Friday when a person drove past in a red moped and fired shots in the 7000 block of South Indiana Avenue.
Four people were hurt, two critically, in a shooting late Friday in Park Manor on the South Side.
Two women, both 28, and two men, both 31, were standing outside about 11:50 p.m. when a person drove past in a red moped and fired shots in the 7000 block of South Indiana Avenue, Chicago police said.
One woman was shot three times on the body and was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. The other was struck in the thigh and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where her condition was stable.
One man was also critically hurt with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said. The other man was shot in the thigh and taken to the same hospital, where his condition was stable.
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-TimesChicago police work the scene where four people were shot in the 7000 block of South Indiana Ave, in the Park Manor neighborhood, Saturday, June 26, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
No one is in custody as Area One detectives investigate.
Former Bears quarterback Erik Kramer recovered after he shot himself — and lived.
He’s grateful to be alive after suicide try, myriad trials and tribulations.
Former Bears quarterback Erik Kramer checked into the Good Nite Inn in Calabasas, California, on Aug. 18, 2015. He brought the SIG Sauer 9mm handgun he had purchased specifically for the occasion.
Kramer had spent weeks planning his death. He got his finances in order so his son Dylan would be comfortable. He never had fired a handgun before, so he took it to the range to practice.
During a five-year span, Kramer divorced, struggled to connect with Dylan (who decided to live with his mom) and split with his girlfriend. And then death took those closest to him, one by one.
In 2011, Kramer’s son Griffen, an 18-year-old quarterback at Thousand Oaks High School, died of a heroin overdose. He had injected the drug, foamed at the mouth and passed out. His friends didn’t take him for medical care. Instead, they put him in a bedroom, where he was found dead the next day.
In 2012, Kramer’s mother, Eileen, died of uterine cancer. The two had grown close only a short time before. Kramer mourned not only her death but never knowing where the relationship was headed. His father, Karl — with whom he wasn’t particularly close — had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer that later would kill him. It surprised Kramer how much it affected him.
‘‘People aren’t coming,’’ he thought. ‘‘They’re going.’’
He figured he’d go, too. He put the gun under his chin and fired.
• • •
Some part of Kramer didn’t want to die that night.
He knew what depression felt like, having taken his first antidepressants during his five-year stint quarterbacking the Bears. But this was different.
‘‘When Griffen died, I’d never been that sad in my life,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘It had the feeling of, when it’s here, it doesn’t go away. Even for a second.’’
Kramer’s first suicidal thought came in 1994, his first season with the Bears. He wasn’t used to the weight of a franchise’s expectations.
Kramer wasn’t a starter in high school. He eventually got the nod in junior college before transferring to North Carolina State. He was undrafted out of college and left the NFL for the Canadian Football League.
‘‘I was a nobody from nowhere,’’ he said.
After he hurt his knee, Kramer said, only one team returned his phone calls: the Lions. Kramer thrived there. His playoff victory against the Cowboys after the 1991 season remains the Lions’ last postseason victory. He was part of the Lions’ last division-title team in 1993 and became a free agent during the offseason. The Bears signed him to a three-year, $8.1 million deal in 1994.
‘‘Chicago tabbed me to be their guy,’’ he said. ‘‘That hadn’t happened in my life — ever.’’
Kramer suffered a separated right shoulder in the Bears’ third game of 1994 and started only three more times all season.
‘‘That’s what sent me into my first depression,’’ he said. ‘‘Getting paid like a starter but not being one. I remember thinking that people must be looking at me a little funny.’’
Every morning, Kramer debated whether he wanted to make the turn into Halas Hall. When he did, he wondered whether he would get out of the car.
“It was a dark, heavy, black internal cloud,’’ he said. ‘‘Nothing felt good. Breathing didn’t feel good. Being awake didn’t feel good. Making eye contact was out of the question.’’
Kramer sought help. He spoke to a psychologist and began taking antidepressants. The next season, he threw for 3,838 yards, which remains the most prolific passing season in Bears history.
His depression returned often, but it never again came because of football.
Kramer doesn’t know whether taking blows to the head during a 13-year pro career contributed to his mental state and admitted it’s ‘‘certainly not outside the realm of possibility.’’ Some of his closest family members think it did.
After Griffen died, Kramer again sought help. He connected with another former Lions quarterback, Eric Hipple. Like Kramer, Hipple had lost a teenage son. Like Kramer, Hipple had tried to kill himself, throwing himself out of a van traveling 70 mph, only to live. In Michigan, Hipple ran a center to help former athletes and service members battling depression. He invited Kramer out in June 2015.
‘‘It was the right place for me, but I got there too late,’’ he said.
Kramer stayed for 30 days and still doesn’t remember how he got home. When he did, the gun was waiting for him at the store. He had passed a background check.
Kramer left suicide notes for his loved ones. But in the minutes before he pulled the trigger, he began sending text messages. One was to his sister. Another was to Chris Germann, a high school friend who eventually would retire from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department after 34 years.
Germann was in New Orleans, getting ready to check his son into his first year of college. At dinner, his phone pinged. He didn’t look at the message until 10 minutes later.
It was a text from Kramer asking Germann to help look after his son. Kramer also told him what he was about to do — and in which hotel he was staying.
‘‘When someone does that, they’re screaming,’’ Germann said. ‘‘They’re trying to talk themselves out of it.’’
Germann ran to his hotel room and began dialing — from his cellphone, his son’s phone and the landline. He tried Kramer’s cellphone, but he didn’t answer. He called his old sheriff’s station and learned a friend was on patrol that night. He tried the lobby at the hotel, a spot he knew from his old neighborhood patrols. He called the paramedics.
When the officers and paramedics arrived at the Good Nite Inn, Germann was patched through to Kramer’s hotel room, which he had checked into under his own name. The phone rang. Germann figured he was too late.
‘‘I’ll be damned if he didn’t answer,’’ Germann said. ‘‘He was moaning.’’
Kramer had shot himself. The bullet traveled from under his chin through his tongue and sinus cavity and out the top of his head.
But Kramer was alive.
‘‘I told him he needed to drop whatever’s in his hand,’’ Germann said.
The gun hit the floor.
He told Kramer to walk to the door, which he had propped open with bloody towels, to greet the officer. He did.
With a hole in his head, Kramer walked outside, down a flight of stairs and into a waiting ambulance.
Kramer was put in a medically induced coma for six weeks and spent about nine months receiving medical care. He remembers none of it. It wasn’t until three years later that he found out he had sent the text messages, that a small part of him was fighting to live.
‘‘There’s a period of my life that goes back before I shot myself, and then a good year afterward where I don’t have a lot of recollections of stuff,’’ he said. ‘‘What I know of my own life was told to me. And that includes the part about the theft.’’
• • •
One of the doctors treating Kramer after he shot himself told him he was so lucky that he should play the lottery every week for the rest of his life.
The doctor couldn’t have been more wrong. Kramer’s skull was rebuilt and his brain began the long process of healing, but his life was thrown into chaos.
It left him fighting what he called a sham marriage, alleged theft by his wife and a push to change the California conservatorship system that he said helped make both possible.
Kramer and Cortney Baird had dated off and on for three years. About six months after he shot himself, Kramer said she reappeared in his life as though she never had left. The two resumed dating, and she eventually moved into his home with her daughter.
Kramer was deemed incapacitated by a neuropsychologist when he shot himself. Looking back, he wonders whether Baird was assessing his cognition.
Kramer was able to perform basic functions and even flew to Chicago to attend Bears minicamp practice 10 months after his suicide attempt.
‘‘But upper-level thinking was something I couldn’t do,’’ he said.
That’s typical in recovering patients, said Dr. Andrew Dorsch, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center who specializes in traumatic brain injuries and rehabilitation after them.
‘‘Decision-making is always on a spectrum,’’ said Dorsch, who doesn’t treat Kramer. ‘‘More complex decisions can become a little bit more dicey.’’
One complex decision Kramer said he couldn’t have made for himself was getting married. On Dec. 22, 2016, Kramer wed Baird at the Santa Barbara (California) Courthouse. She booked the wedding around the same time Kramer had signed over conservatorship of his decision-making to his sister.
Because of his brain injury, Kramer said he would have said yes to anything if someone else had suggested it strongly.
He didn’t tell anyone at first. When Anna Dergan, his lifelong friend, saw he had purchased a ring, she grew suspicious.
Four months earlier, Kramer’s money had started to go missing. Dergan first grew suspicious that Baird was stealing his money. She first reported the alleged thefts to detectives on Oct. 19, 2016. Kramer told detectives a few days later he didn’t recognize the charges.
Photo courtesy Anna DerganFormer Bears quarterback sits with lifelong friend Anna Dergan.
While Kramer recovered from his brain injury, his trust fund paid his bills and afforded him spending money once a month. He wasn’t one to spend wildly, either before or after his injury. But by the middle of 2016 — less than a year after his suicide attempt — Kramer said his checking account would become overdrawn. His credit card was being used to give cash advances.
It didn’t take long for Dergan to become outraged.
‘‘That’s who I am,’’ she said. ‘‘I right a wrong.’’
The marriage, however, ground the theft investigation to a standstill. In a hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court a month after the wedding, Baird said, ‘‘I admit to the wrong I did before [and] will do whatever the court sees fit to show that I’m no longer a threat to him,’’ according to court transcripts.
She was told she couldn’t open credit cards or withdraw from his account. Still, it would be three years before she was arrested. Saying he was unable to make complicated decisions, Kramer grew increasingly concerned that Baird was draining his finances, but they remained together.
In May 2018, Kramer put an offer in on a home in Southern California that he planned to share with Baird. The sellers accepted, he said, but the deal stalled. Kramer’s financial conservator — who had been put in place because of concerns that Baird was spending Kramer’s money — blocked the sale. Kramer, whose brain was recovering, said that moment gave him clarity. The next month, Kramer flew to Chicago for a Bears alumni golf tournament. During dinner with a former Bears team priest, Kramer finally vocalized it: He was going to go home and tell Baird he wanted a divorce.
When he arrived back in Agoura Hills, California, he told Baird he wanted a divorce and went to bed. The next morning, Kramer said, he made coffee and went outside to read the paper. Baird, he said, told him she wasn’t getting a divorce and insisted she wasn’t stealing from him. At the time, Kramer couldn’t account for about a quarter-million dollars, including, he said, $10,000 from a memorial fund set up after Griffen’s death.
‘‘I go to put my hand on the back of her shoulder, asking her to go back inside,’’ he said. ‘‘She shrugs my hand off the back of her shoulder and walks back in. Nothing really happened.’’
Kramer said he began walking around the house, collecting photos of Baird and her daughter ‘‘as a reminder that she was going to be out soon.’’ When she put them back up, he set them outside the front door.
Then the police arrived.
Kramer said the officer asked him if he had put his hands on Baird. He said yes but didn’t offer any context. He was arrested.
‘‘They don’t know about my brain injury,’’ he said. ‘‘They just know I’m a guy who got called for domestic violence.’’
Kramer had the $50,000 needed to bail himself out, but it took a day to cut a cashier’s check from his account, which was based in Florida. He spent the night in jail, unable to sleep on a 1-inch mattress on top of a concrete bench.
‘‘I knew what happened,’’ he said. ‘‘But I also knew what didn’t happen.’’
When Kramer got out of jail, he couldn’t go home; Baird had a restraining order. It took Kramer four days to retrieve his wallet from his house. During those four days, Baird stayed at the Four Seasons, an expenditure she later defended in court documents.
The two split. Kramer’s friends and family rallied around him, helping him try to untangle years of his life. In January 2019, his marriage was annulled. On Feb. 7, 2020, Baird was charged with 12 felonies for, among other things, suspicion of grand theft from an elder or dependent adult, forgery and identity theft. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 29.
Kramer claimed Baird took about $300,000. He said he spent more than that on legal fees dating to his conservatorship, annulment and defense.
‘‘I’d like for her to go to jail forever,’’ Kramer said.
Kramer can’t put a price on his reputation. His arrest on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse was national news. He later was charged with misdemeanor battery. Last year, though, Los Angeles County dropped all charges against him.
‘‘When you’re born, your reputation is the one thing you have that no one can take away,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘In this case, I did nothing wrong. It was forgery, identity theft, grand theft, but none of those things would have been possible had there not been a medical condition first. That medical condition is what cleared the path for her to do what she did.
‘‘There was no domestic violence. The day I was arrested, I was incapacitated — and not just on the date of marriage but the days and months that followed.’’
• • •
Kramer laughs when it’s suggested that the public’s knowledge of the conservatorship court system — in which a guardian manages finances and decisions for someone deemed incapacitated — starts and ends with Britney Spears.
‘‘Most people don’t know about the conservatorship court system until they’re in it,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m the only person I know that at one time has been in but am now out. Typically, you never come out.’’
Kramer thinks the system failed him. His aunt and sister went through the system to try to gain conservatorship of his estate and of Kramer’s personal decisions. Kramer said his own court-appointed lawyer argued against it because he sided with Baird.
Had Kramer been broke, the state would have had to pay for his professional conservator. Because he wasn’t, Kramer suspects the system was incentivized to complicate matters to increase their billable hours.
‘‘This is a legal system that’s akin to a fox in a henhouse,’’ he said.
Dergan said Kramer’s experience ‘‘unveiled not only the dysfunctional, failed criminal-court system but also this conservatorship.’’ Protecting him from Baird’s alleged theft and getting his marriage annulled should have been a slam dunk, she said.
‘‘You don’t ignore the family,’’ Dergan said. ‘‘You don’t ignore the friends that have been in the person’s life for 40 years and appoint a complete stranger, and whatever that stranger says, goes.’’
Kramer and Dergan are trying to change the system. In April, they met virtually with California state Sen. Robert Hertzberg to discuss Kramer’s experience and hope to help craft legislation next year.
One change Kramer and Dergan want to make is that when there’s an active police investigation, an incapacitated person immediately should be put into conservatorship, making something such as a wedding decision legally invalid.
We all could be vulnerable and in the conservatorship court system one day, Kramer said.
‘‘I want to tell the world because this is where we’re all headed,’’ he said. ‘‘And it won’t take a gunshot to the head.’’
• • •
Kramer, who is 56, coached the running game at Chaminade High School in West Hills, California, during the spring. The players have talked to him about his NFL career but not about the suicide attempt.
‘‘If they’re old enough to read newspapers or go online, they know,’’ he said.
Kramer, who invested well and doesn’t have to work again, would like to be a high school head coach one day. He thinks reports of his domestic-violence arrest cost him at least two opportunities.
In June 2020, he had a re-evaluation of the same neuropsychology test he took after he shot himself. His doctor gave him an official letter of capacity.
‘‘The brain does heal,’’ Kramer said.
Kramer’s memory has returned, which is a blessing and a curse. He never will get over losing Griffen.
‘He’s a big, kind-hearted guy,’’ said Germann, his high school friend. ‘‘He’s got a long way to go. . . . He’s come so far and, recently, even farther.’’
Through the years, Germann has had the same response whenever Kramer asked how he was. He always would say he was ‘‘better than I deserve.’’
Recently, Kramer said the same thing back to him.
‘‘I went from life being so dark that I thought the best option was to not be here,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘Now I’m the most grateful guy walking the planet.’’
A man is facing charges in connection with a fatal shooting from June 19, 2021, on the West Side. | Sun-Times file
Angel Ayala, 22, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the June 19 incident, Chicago police said.
A man is accused of fatally shooting a woman while firing shots at another man last week on the West Side.
Angel Ayala, 22, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the June 19 incident, Chicago police said.
Ayala allegedly fired on a 2016 Mazda about 6:10 p.m. in the 3300 block of West North Avenue, striking a 23-year-old man in the leg, police said.
A bullet passed through the vehicle and struck Nicole Osborne, 37, who was walking in the area at the time, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. She was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.
Ayala, of Blue Island, was arrested Thursday in the south suburb.
Arrieta allowed one earned run on five hits over five innings in Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Dodgers.
If there was anybody in need of a change in fortune in the Cubs’ rotation, it was Jake Arrieta. Arrieta came into Friday’s game against the Dodgers 1-4 with a 7.22 ERA over his last seven starts, making his most recent outing of crucial importance.
Arrieta was able to stop the bleeding on his rough stretch in the Cubs’ 6-2 loss to the Dodgers and did exactly what the Cubs need him to do.
“I think it was just okay,” Arrieta said. “I was able to minimize damage and keep it keep it within reach. … I could have thrown the ball better, though. At the end of the day, would have liked to be better for us.”
There was traffic all night against the Cubs starter, but unlike his last handful of starts, he was able to work out of jams.
The night looked like it was going to go south for Arrieta in the fifth inning and after a dropped popup at second base by Ian Happ, the Dodgers would load the bases with a single and a walk.
But Arrieta bared down and made pitches when he needed to and was able to get a much-needed groundout to end the inning without allowing any damage.
“I think all starts are big. I don’t put more importance on one than the other,” manager David Ross said. “I think he threw the ball pretty well. I thought some areas he looked sharp. Breaking stuff looked really good, a couple of changeups. Just some misfires, but I thought he used both sides of the plate really well.”
The Cubs defense didn’t help Arrieta with miscues by Happ and Anthony Rizzo, leading to extra pitches and an additional run on the board. He likely would have made it to the sixth inning with fewer than 80 pitches.
The right-hander finished the game going five innings allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits with three walks (one intentional) and three strikeouts. It was just the second time since April 25 he’s allowed one earned run in a start.
The Cubs still need more length out of Arrieta and while Friday’s start was a step in the right direction, he’ll need to show that he can duplicate his performance.
“I don’t think the results completely indicate [it], but we definitely are moving in the right direction,” he said. “When I went into lefties with the fastball I was it was kind of pulled across the plate, and then the homer was supposed to be in and it kind of leaked back to the middle third of the plate. And that’s something that we’re going to tighten up over the next couple of days.”
I’m still runni9ng through beers that have been sent to me for my comment. Let’s forge ahead.
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Ballast Point Brewing Co. was founded in 1996 in San Diego. They built up a national distribution footprint with their flagship Sculpin IPA. I encountered it in the Chicago market in 2013. It was a kind of California IPA that explored hop loads beyond the usual West Coast hops, adding fruity impressions.
Ballast Point was swept up in the wave of craft brewer buyouts in the mid-teens, going to Constellation Brands for an eye-popping one billion dollars. The purchase at first brought expansion, with a branch brwery on the East Coast and a brewpub in Chicago’s West Loop. The brewery failed to find the needed “synergy,” though. In December of 2019, it was sold to new investors, who had also backed Kings and Convicts Brewing in north suburban Highwood. This led to a reconsideration of their business, focusing on the Southern California market and closing the Chicago site (of course the pandemic had something to do with it). Earlier this year, they started to expand again, now packaged in cans.
The Sculpin kicks up a big head when poured from the can into a tulip. A slightly tan head sits on a golden beer body with a bit of haze. Smell is light tropical fruits from hops. But in the taste, the tropical fruit is more prominent, followed right behind by the usual pine and resin of a West Coast IPA. As I recall, this was one of my first IPAs to bring in “tropical fruit” hops.
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Meet The Blogger
Mark McDermott
Writer, trivia maven, fan of many things. I thought to learn all there is to know about beer as a way to stay interested in learning. It is my pleasure to bring Chicago’s craft beer scene to you.
Alec Martinez had been there before. The left point, that is. Who can forget the shot made from there by Martinez, then playing for the Kings, in overtime of Game 7 in the 2014 Western Conference finals? It deflected off Blackhawks defenseman Nick Leddy, floated ever so cruelly past goalie Corey Crawford’s right ear and left a little hole in Chicago’s heart.
Thursday night in Montreal, Martinez, now with the Golden Knights, was back at the left point, again in overtime, again with a passage to the Stanley Cup finals palpably in the balance. This time, though, his snipe bounced off Canadiens goalie Carey Price like a tennis ball off a wall and led to a mad rush the other way. Phillip Danault found Artturi Lehkonen, who pounded the puck past former Hawk Robin Lehner for a 3-2 win — the stunning climax to a six-game series upset that had 2021 written all over it.
What is it about this year that keeps making unimaginable outcomes in sports so wonderfully commonplace?
We can all agree that 2020 was one of the worst years in sports, but is anybody else starting to believe 2021 is one of the best? Fans are returning to most venues. Many teams are being unburdened of COVID-19-related restrictions. And as for the action itself? Taken all together, it’s a fantastical yarn.
We got a hint of what was to come when 43-year-old Tom Brady led the Buccaneers — the No. 5 seeds in the NFC — on a postseason run that was like something from the Brothers Grimm. Not only did the Bucs vanquish Drew Brees’ Saints, Aaron Rodgers’ Packers and Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs all in a row, but they did it in each case as underdogs and with a quarterback who ended his first year in Tampa as the oldest player to play in a Super Bowl.
“This team never stopped fighting, never stopped believing,” Brady said, “and we found a way when it mattered most.”
Mickelson made 50-year-old magic at the PGA Championship.Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Phil Mickelson captured that spirit in May when, at 50, he won the PGA Championship to become the oldest major champion on record. This followed Hideki Matsuyama’s stirring triumph in April at the Masters, where he became the first Japanese male golfer to win a major and the first Asian-born player to don the green jacket. And it preceded Jon Rahm’s ferocious final round in this month’s U.S. Open, the title claimed by a Spaniard for the first time.
In women’s golf, the first two majors of the year went to players — Patty Tavatanakit and Yuka Saso — who’d never won one before. And no one within five strokes of the lead heading into Saturday’s third round of the Women’s PGA Championship has, either.
As for the Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup wouldn’t be anything they haven’t done 24 times before. But they haven’t done it since 1993. If you can believe it, no Canadian team has hoisted the Cup in all that time.
And this Montreal team was the biggest longshot of the postseason, owner of the worst record of any team in the playoff field. Heading in, the Canadiens were +3500 on the money line to win it all. They survived three elimination games to get through the opening round against Toronto. They even have an interim coach behind the bench in Luke Richardson.
“They deserve this,” Richardson said of his players. “And they’re not done yet. They still have fire in their eyes.”
The Suns celebrate a wild win in Game against the Clippers.Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Speaking of fire, not to mention 1993, who’s hotter than the Suns? They’re two wins from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since a John Paxson three-pointer shattered their dreams 28 years ago. Trailing 2-1 in the Western Conference finals are the Clippers, who’ve never gotten this far before, let alone taken the next step to play for a championship.
But why are we talking about those teams when we could be talking about Trae Young and the out-of-nowhere Hawks? They’re trying to get to the Finals for the first time since 1961 — when the franchise was still located in St. Louis — and are knotted 1-1 with the Bucks, whose title drought is a mere 10 years shorter.
When was the last time the NBA playoffs were so … different? The answer is basically never because certain players and teams have always been stuck on repeat. You have to flip back through LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and by the time you do you’re exhausted from the recollecting. Maybe 2011, when Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks won it all, offered this kind of a different feel? Maybe not quite.
“Everybody is happy we made it to the Eastern Conference finals, but we’re not satisfied,” Young said. “It’s great that we’re here, but we still got some games left.”
We’re counting on it. And we still have half the year to go. You don’t need us to tell you that in 2021 in sports, anything might happen.
A Chicago man has been charged in federal court with carjacking and killing a ride-share driver in Lawndale earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors allege 18-year-old Edmond Harris carjacked Javier Ramos’ 2013 Lexus GS on March 23 and shot him during a violent altercation. The charges accuse Harris of brandishing a firearm before shooting Ramos and taking his car.
Harris was charged with one count of carjacking, one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of causing death through the use of a firearm. These charges carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of death.
Harris was taken into federal custody Friday where he was scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery Cummings.
“Senseless acts of violence like the ones charged in this indictment have no place in our society,” said U.S. Attorney John Lausch. “The charges announced today are the direct result of a strong partnership between federal, state, and local law enforcement in Chicago. We will not hesitate to prosecute violent carjackers to the fullest extent of federal law.”
“Carjacking is a threat to the safety of the community,” said Kristen de Tineo, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. “I pledge the continued full support of the men and women of the Chicago Field Division to work collaboratively with our law enforcement partners to investigate these crimes.”
A couple weeks after Ramos’ death, the Independent Drivers Guild’s Illinois chapter called on Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing companies to do more in protecting its drivers. This included requiring passengers to upload a photo of their driver’s licenses, state IDs or passport on their account profiles.
“We are thankful for the efforts of the law enforcement community in tracking down the killer of Javier Ramos,” said Lenny Sanchez, co-founder of the Independent Drivers Guild’s Illinois chapter. “While this won’t bring [Ramos] back to his family, these federal charges are a critical step toward accountability and we hope they send a message to all the carjackers who have been victimizing gig workers across our city.”
Carjackings were up dramatically in 2020 and are on a similar pace this year, with 702 between Jan. 1 and June 25, police records show.
The ChicagoBears, once again, are threatening to move to the suburbs — a routine that’s just as much a part of the franchise history as Dick Butkus terrorizing an opposing team’s offense or Walter Payton high-stepping across the goal line to score a touchdown.
The threat usually winds up being a bid for the team to get a better Soldier Field lease deal from the city, or some kind of new stadium on the public’s dime. The nearly $700 million renovation of Soldier Field in 2003 was kind of a hybrid between the two.
But the Bears could be serious this time. The team last week put in a bid to buy the Arlington International Racecourse property in Arlington Heights.
We’d love to keep the Bears in Chicago, playing inside the (mostly) historic Soldier Field, the team’s home since 1971. We enjoy the iconic game day, television shots of the stadium with Chicago’s glorious skyline behind it.
And yet, if the Bears want to move to Arlington Heights, let them. Neither city nor state taxpayers should be asked to pay the usual ransom to keep them in town.
Bears ‘to explore every option’
Chicago Bears President Ted Phillips last week confirmed days of speculation that the team had been eyeballing the 326-acre former racetrack, which was placed on the market in February by its owner, Churchill Downs, Inc., for an undisclosed price.
The Bears are among fewer than 10 serious suitors bidding for the site.
“We recently submitted a bid to purchase the Arlington International Racecourse property,” Phillips said in a news release. “It’s our obligation to explore every possible option to ensure we’re doing what’s best for our organization and its future. If selected, this step allows us to further evaluate the property and its potential.”
If the deal works out, the Bears could build a stadium to their specifications — certainly one larger than the 61,509-seat Soldier Field, which is the NFL’s smallest capacity stadium — and fill it and its surroundings with all the amenities, parking and sponsorship deals the team and it’s ownership desires.
New chapter for Soldier Field?
The Bears are locked into their Soldier Field lease until 2033. If they bail before then, the team will be on the hook to the Park District for $5 million a year for the remainder of the agreement.
“This announcement from the Bears comes in the midst of negotiations for improvements at Soldier Field,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “This is clearly a negotiating tactic that the Bears have used before.”
True. But as the Daily Herald reported last week, the Bears quietly signed a sponsorship deal with Des Plaines’ Rivers Casino — the majority owner of which is Churchill Downs, Inc.
That the Bears would now enter into a deal with the company that can soon select the team’s bid for the Arlington Heights racetrack is no small thing. If nothing else, it shows that Chicago has to seriously think about a post-Bears life for Soldier Field, be it now or a decade down the road.
The Soldier Field reconstruction brought with it two major improvements that could serve the venue well if it must forge ahead without the Bears.
The stadium was reconfigured for professional soccer — the Chicago Fire plays there now — and has hosted world rugby matches. And Soldier Field has become a pretty decent outdoor concert venue, with a notably good sound system.
Elton John’s farewell tour is scheduled to make a stop there next summer. So is country music star Kenny Chesney.
More events like these are what Soldier Field would need, not only to make up for the eight regular-season Bears football dates, but to help rebrand the stadium as a multi-use facility that can command top music acts and sporting events.
Envisioning a life for Soldier Field beyond Bears games also would help move the city away from the temptation to start spending money to keep the team here.
This isn’t the 1970s, 1980s, or even the 2000s, when mayors, political leaders and civic movers and shakers openly feared the loss of a sports franchise would doom the city, so they committed vast fortunes of taxpayer funds to keep that from happening.
Times have changed — or so we hope.
If the Bears leave, Chicago and Soldier Field will survive. Particularly if the city is smart about programming and repositioning the Park District-owned stadium.
You’re vaccinated, you’ve got a significant other to do things with, and Chicago is open for the summer season— so now what are you going to do? There are so many great ways to have fun with a friend here in the city; here are just a few suggestions to resurrect Date Night with the perfect summer vacation.
Experience Patio Season as it was meant to be experienced with a great view of the city and the perfect cocktail. This newer rooftop spot in Wicker Park is situated at the top of Hyatt Place Chicago/Wicker Park, giving you the best vantage point from which to appreciate the skyline with your boo.
Located at 2444 N Elston Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, The Hotel at Midtown is perhaps the finest boutique hotel in the entire city to visit in the summer. But it’s so much more to that. Attached to the Midtown Athletic Club, a stay at The Hotel at Midtown gives you access to a world-class fitness facility, a brunch restaurant, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, and a spa that is to die for. If you’re looking for hotels to visit for your vacation in Chicago, The Hotel at Midtown is truly a perfect blend of luxury and wellness. Enjoy the indulgence without having to stay directly in the heart of The Loop.
With food, music, and other attractions, it’s no surprise that Navy Pier is one of Chicago’s top destinations. Even if you’re a Chicago native who’s had all the deep-dish pizza and ferris wheel rides they can stand, the summertime fireworks are always a great opportunity to get outside with your honey and gaze at the night sky.
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Ste 470, Chicago IL 60654
This huge light display on the facade of the old Merchandise Mart building is often accompanied by music, and features work by world-renowned artists. What better way to enjoy the summer nights on your vacation in Chicago than to see some local art in the fresh air?
With thousands of plants on display in eight different indoor gardens, Garfield Park Conservatory is an oasis of green within the urban landscape. Make a reservation for you and your friend to take a minute and smell the roses.
This 1.25-mile walk includes some of the city’s best dining, public art, outdoor activities, and more. If you are taking a vacation in Chicago, we recommend checking out the Chicago Architecture Center. Grab some lunch at one of the Riverwalk’s many restaurants, and even try your hand at urban kayaking!
June through August, you can catch live music at the Museum of Contemporary Art every Tuesday at 5:30p.m. No more date nights watching music livestreams on a screen!
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Chicago’s Favorite Food Critics and Bloggers
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