Two women, ages 70 and 63, were among those injured in the crash.
Five people were injured Friday morning in a serious crash that sent a car careening into Calumet Heights flower shop on the South Side.
A Nissan Maxima occupied by three people in their 20s ran a stop sign and struck a Toyota Corolla about 7:30 a.m. at Stony Island Avenue and 87th Street, according to Chicago police.
After hitting the Corolla, the Toyota crashed into a flower shop and caught fire, police said.
Two women in the Corolla, ages 70 and 63, were injured in the crash and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. Police initially described their injuries as being grave, and later said they were not considered life-threatening.
The driver of the Nissan, a 27-year-old man, was pulled from the car and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, according to police. Two other people in the car were also taken to a hospital, where they were in serious condition, according to Chicago fire spokesman Larry Merritt.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, left, speaks during a bill signing in 2019; Mayor Lori Lightfoot, right, meets with the Sun-Times Editorial Board in 2019. | Amr Alfiky/AP file; Rich Hein/Sun-Times file
“The legislation is credit negative for the city of Chicago,” said the advisory from Moody’s Investors Service, “because it will cause the city’s reported unfunded pension liabilities, and thus its annual contribution requirements, to rise.”
A Wall Street rating agency that alone gave Chicago a junk bond rating on Friday branded as “credit negative” a bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s objections this week boosting pensions for thousands of Chicago firefighters.
“The legislation is credit negative for the city of Chicago,” said the advisory from Moody’s Investors Service, “because it will cause the city’s reported unfunded pension liabilities, and thus its annual contribution requirements, to rise.”
With pension contributions consuming 17% of the city’s operating revenue and total liabilities pegged at $46.6 billion in 2019, pensions are the “largest credit challenge facing Chicago,” Moody’s said.
Pritzker signed the bill on Monday, arguing that the new law “creates a system that gives all firefighters certainty and fair treatment.” But Lightfoot, who had urged the fellow Democrat not to sign it, blasted it as a “fiscally irresponsible” law typical of Springfield’s “back room deals.”
Moody’s on Friday gave Lightfoot more ammunition.
The Firefighters Annuity and Benefit Fund has “asset/benefit coverage of just three years,” Moody’s wrote. That’s a “point-in-time estimate of the numbers of years of benefit payments pension assets can cover, assuming no further contributions or investment income and no further growth in benefits.”
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times fileChicago Fire Department firefighters carry a house while trying to put out an extra-alarm fire in the Bridgeport neighborhood in February.
“The city must continue to increase its contributions substantially to prevent the insolvency of its deeply underfunded retirement systems and eventually accumulate a more substantial base of pension assets,” Moody’s wrote.
But, the rating agency also wrote, “While significant, the roughly $800 million liability increase stemming from House Bill 2451 that the city has forecast is not outsized relative to the scale of the city’s already extremely high liabilities.”
The bill, introduced by state Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, a Lightfoot political nemesis, passed in the waning hours of the lame duck session.
It removes the “birth date restriction” that prohibits roughly 2,200 active and retired firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966 from receiving a 3% annual cost of living increase. Instead, they get half that amount, 1.5% and it is not compounded.
Martwick has argued the “birth date restriction” already has been moved five times as a way of masking the true cost to the pension fund.
Lightfoot strongly disagreed. She has argued that the bill amounts to ill-timed and unaffordable pension sweetener that would saddle Chicago taxpayers with up $823 million in added costs by 2055 and trigger “another property tax hike for Chicagoans, which would regrettably add to the overwhelming economic duress that so many or our neighbors are facing.”
The mayor’s $12.8 billion budget already includes a $94 million property tax increase, followed by annual increases tied to the consumer price index.
When he signed the bill on Monday, Pritzker argued that “hardworking men and women who have earned their pension shouldn’t pay the price for local or state budget challenges.”
“To make sure that the city can meet its obligations, my administration is working to sell the James R. Thompson Center, which will return to the city’s property tax rolls and is projected to generate $45 million annually for the city and its sister agencies,” the governor wrote in a statement.
Matthew Namoff, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business. Meanwhile, Casey Urlacher ran for reelection as a write-in candidate in Tuesday’s suburban elections.
Yet another defendant in the multimillion-dollar sports gambling case that led earlier this year to a pardon of Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher by then-President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in federal court.
Matthew Namoff, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business. In doing so, he became the sixth of 10 original defendants in the case to plead guilty and the fifth since Trump pardoned Urlacher, the brother of ChicagoBears great Brian Urlacher.
Namoff faces a likely sentence of six months to a year in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 23.
Chicago Police Officer Nicholas Stella pleaded guilty in the case earlier this week. A police spokesperson said at the time that Stella’s status with the department was “inactive.”
Meanwhile, Casey Urlacher ran for reelection as a write-in candidate in Tuesday’s suburban elections. Online results showed Urlacher leading in that race Friday, but authorities had not declared a winner.
The February 2020 indictment filed in the case alleged that Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice recruited Namoff, Urlacher, Stella and others to work as agentsin his multimillion-dollar gambling ring. DelGiudice pleaded guilty in February, admitting he ran the ring around Chicago from 2016 until 2019.
The indictment alleged that Namoff called DelGiudice on Dec. 17, 2018, to discuss problems with DelGiudice’s gambling website. It also alleged that, on Jan. 19, 2019, Namoff and DelGiudice discussed collecting money from a gambler. DelGiudice told Namoff to say that he was “with Mr. DelGiudice,” it said.
Namoff also called DelGiudice on Jan. 28, 2019, to discuss a new gambler who wanted to place large bets with Namoff, according to the indictment.
WASHINGTON — Washington will rush federal resources to support vaccinations, testing and therapeutics, but not vaccines, to Michigan in an effort to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 transmission rate, the White House said Friday.
The announcement came as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer strongly recommended, but did not order, a two-week pause on face-to-face high school instruction, indoor restaurant dining and youth sports. She cited more contagious coronavirus variants and pandemic fatigue as factors in the surge, which has led some hospitals to postpone non-emergency procedures.
Statewide hospitalizations have quadrupled in a month and are nearing peak levels from last spring and fall.
“Policy alone won’t change the tide. We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility,” she said Friday, while not ruling out future restrictions. Michigan’s seven-day case rate was 492 per 100,000 people, well above second-worst New Jersey, with 328 per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
President Joe Biden outlined the moves late Thursday in a call with Whitmer to discuss the situation in the state, according to senior administration officials. It will not include a “surge” of vaccine doses, a move Whitmer has advocated and which is backed by Michigan legislators and members of Congress.
Instead, Biden talked about how the federal government was planning to help Michigan better administer the doses already allocated to the state, as well as to increase testing capacity and drugs for virus treatment.
Whitmer, a Democrat, confirmed that she asked Biden on the call to send more vaccine doses to Michigan, particularly the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot.
“I made the case for a surge strategy,” she said. “At this point, that’s not being deployed, but I am not giving up. … Today it’s Michigan and the Midwest. Tomorrow, it could be another section of our country. I really believe that the most important thing we can do is put our efforts into squelching where the hot spots are.”
Doses are allocated to states proportionally by population, but Whitmer has called for extra doses to be shifted to states, like hers, that are experiencing a sharp rise in cases.
“We’re going to stick with the allocation system of allocating by state adult population,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, calling it “the fair and equitable way” to distribute the vaccines. He said the administration was looking to help Michigan administer more of its vaccines efficiently.
Officials noted that providing more doses would not be nearly as effective in curbing the spike in cases as increasing testing and restoring mitigation measures like mask wearing and restrictions on high-risk activities like social gatherings, indoor dining and youth sports. That is because the vaccines take at least two weeks to begin providing immunity.
Biden told Whitmer that his administration stands ready to send an additional 160 Federal Emergency Management Agency and CDC personnel to Michigan to assist in vaccinations, on top of the 230 federal personnel already deployed to the state to support pandemic response operations.
Biden added that he was directing his administration to prioritize the distribution of doses through federal channels, like the retail pharmacy program and community health centers, to areas of the state Whitmer identifies.
“We are at war with this virus, which requires leaders from across the country to work together,” said White House spokesperson Chris Meagher. “We’re in close contact with Gov. Whitmer, who is working hard to keep Michigan safe, and working in close coordination through a range of options that can help stop the spread of the virus.”
About 40% of Michigan residents ages 16 and older have gotten at least one vaccine dose. Michigan ranked 35th among states in its vaccination rate as of Thursday.
The governor’s recommended high school closure drew mixed reaction in education circles. Her administration closed high schools for a month during the state’s second surge late last fall.
“Research has shown schools can be safe places for in-person learning, so long as community spread is under control — but with higher risk in our communities comes higher risk in classrooms,” said Michigan Education Association President Paula Herbart, whose union urged a similar two-week suspension of in-person learning at elementary and middle schools and colleges.
Restaurants, meanwhile, questioned Whitmer’s recommendation to not eat inside but welcomed the call for more vaccines.
“We trust our operators to continue to provide a safe environment indoors or out in the coming weeks and we trust Michiganders to do their part to act responsibly and respectfully to help us all achieve that outcome,” said Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association.
Illinois public health officials on Friday reported a second straight record-setting day for COVID-19 vaccinations — but the state also hit a worrying milestone by logging more than 4,000 new cases of the disease for the first time in 10 weeks as the latest coronavirus surge builds momentum.
With 164,462 doses administered Thursday, Illinois is vaccinating more people than ever, at an average clip of 118,336 shots per day over the last week, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
That still hasn’t been enough to tamp down a sharp rise in infections over the past month, as most key metrics have almost doubled.
With another 4,004 residents testing positive for the virus — the most in a day since Jan. 29 — about 3,122 Illinoisans have contracted COVID-19 each day over the past week. That rate is up 91% compared to the first week of March, when the state was reporting an average of 1,663 daily cases.
2:45 p.m. Biden to rush vaccine support to Michigan as governor urges limits
WASHINGTON — Washington will rush federal resources to support vaccinations, testing and therapeutics, but not vaccines, to Michigan in an effort to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 transmission rate, the White House said Friday.
The announcement came as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer strongly recommended, but did not order, a two-week pause on face-to-face high school instruction, indoor restaurant dining and youth sports. She cited more contagious coronavirus variants and pandemic fatigue as factors in the surge, which has led some hospitals to postpone non-emergency procedures.
Statewide hospitalizations have quadrupled in a month and are nearing peak levels from last spring and fall.
“Policy alone won’t change the tide. We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility,” she said Friday, while not ruling out future restrictions. Michigan’s seven-day case rate was 492 per 100,000 people, well above second-worst New Jersey, with 328 per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
1:30 p.m. No region in the world spared as coronavirus cases, deaths surge
WARSAW, Poland — Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up. Pakistan is restricting domestic travel. The U.S. government will send more help to the state with the country’s worst infection increase.
The worldwide surge in coronavirus cases and deaths includes even Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations but now struggles to contain COVID-19.
The only exceptions to the deteriorating situation are countries that have advanced vaccination programs, mostly notably Israel and Britain. The U.S., which is a vaccination leader globally, is also seeing a small uptick in new cases, and the White House announced Friday that it would send federal assistance to Michigan to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation transmission rate.
The World Health Organization said infection rates are climbing in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many countries coming out of lockdown too soon.
12:20 p.m. Riverwalk vendors begin phased reopening Friday
Vendors on the Chicago Riverwalk began a phased-in reopening Friday that will have all vendors open by the end of May.
Island Party Hut, Beat Kitchen on the River and City Winery opened Friday. A new vendor addition this year is Pier 31, which plans to open in May.
“The Riverwalk is not only an important part of our city’s economic engine, but it also adds to the liveliness of our iconic summers,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news release.
“This reopening serves as yet another indicator of our city’s resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we look forward to making this Chicago staple available to residents and visitors this spring and summer.”
11:05 a.m. Aldermen move to prevent parade permit infighting
With 500 permits issued every year, it’s safe to say that Chicago loves a parade.
On Thursday, the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events proved that love by providing a bit of post-pandemic protection.
At Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s behest, aldermen endorsed an ordinance that preserves permit priority for “traditional parades” scheduled at around the same time along the same route “in connection with a specific holiday or consistent theme for at least the prior five years.”
That priority status would remain even though those “traditional parades” were canceled last year because of the coronavirus — and even though none have been held so far this year, either.
Deputy Transportation Commissioner Mike Simon said the goal of the mayor’s ordinance is to prevent the temporary hiatus from opening the door to post-pandemic feuds between parade organizers vying for permits on the same day.
10:30 a.m. ‘Trauma upon trauma’: Asian Americans say mental health has suffered amid COVID-19, anti-Asian violence
The coronavirus pandemic sparked a mental health crisis. For Asians and Asian Americans also facing a rise in hate incidents across the country, it’s been “trauma upon trauma,” says Anne Saw, a Chicago psychologist.
“A lot of our communities are experiencing so many pandemic stressors that are then compounded by a lot of anti-Asian discrimination that we’re also experiencing,” says Saw, who teaches at DePaul University and directs the Chicago Asian American Psychology Lab.
“It’s tough to, like, get your head above water and get some room to breathe when every day we’re confronted with new traumas,” she says.
We talked to seven Chicagoans about how anti-Asian violence coupled with the pandemic have affected their mental health and their everyday lives. Among them was Kaylee Cong, 32, of Uptown, who manages a nail spa.
On March 20, four days after the Atlanta shootings, Cong says, her 60-year-old Vietnamese father was punched in the head as he walked alone that night near Broadway and West Ainslee Street. He turned to run, saw a white man holding a baseball bat watching him and called 911.
“We’re really scared,” says Cong, who’d been talking with her father about the Georgia shootings the day before he was attacked. “What if the person come back and do revenge? My entire life living here, it was so peaceful. There was no violence like this.”
She says her father hasn’t wanted to leave the house since that happened.
Older Asian Americans “just want to keep quiet and don’t want to make waves,” Cong says. “I have really different mentality. We deserve to, you know, feel safe. And we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for ourselves.”
9:56 a.m. CPS high school reopening agreement remains elusive
A final high school reopening agreement remains elusive between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union just days before high school teachers are due to return to classrooms — and the union president said Thursday the next few days of negotiations will determine whether workers show up on Monday.
Though the range of issues is smaller and disagreement over those items is not as severe as the hostile K-8 negotiations in February, there are still a few unresolved concerns the union is expressing as COVID-19 infections once again rise in the city.
CPS officials have directed 5,350 high school teachers to return to buildings Monday with or without a CTU agreement, and about 26,000 students in grades 9-12 are expected back the following week.
Whether or not that timeline sticks is dependent on “how outrageous the board’s positions are as we go ahead,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey told a few hundred members at a virtual meeting Thursday that was closed to the public.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Sharkey, I want a really definitive answer, am I going in on Monday?'” he said. “And my really definitive answer is, it depends on where we’re at.”
8:08 a.m. Spike in COVID-19 cases causes University of Chicago to announce stay-at-home period for students
University of Chicago announced a stay-at-home period for students Wednesday evening following the largest COVID-19 outbreak at the university since the start of the academic year.
After more than 50 cases of the coronavirus were detected among undergraduates in recent days, the university announced that students living on-campus must observe a week-long stay-at-home period immediately.
“We expect this number to increase,” university officials said in an email sent to members of the university community Thursday.
All undergraduate classes will be fully remote for at least a week starting Thursday and students can only leave their residence halls for food, medical appointments and short walks for exercise.
Illinois’ infection rate is still less than a third of what it was during the worst days of the pandemic last fall — but it’s doubled in the last four weeks.
Chicago’s most important news of the day, delivered every weekday afternoon. Plus, a bonus issue on Saturdays that dives into the city’s storied history.
This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a high near 62 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 49 degrees. Tomorrow brings rain, including some possible thunderstorms, with a high near 60 degrees. And more rain is in the forecast for Sunday, along with a high near 58 degrees.
Jim Zwit never forgot the hot, sticky smell of Vietnam. And he never forgot the eight Army buddies he lost there in an ambush in 1971.
He made it his life’s mission to track down each of their families, spread across the United States. And that was in an age before finding people was made easier by the likes of Google, email and social media.
It took him 40 years, but he finally found the last of them.
“He let the families know their sons did not die alone and they’d never be forgotten,” said Pat Condran, a fellow vet who plans to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., to mark the 50th anniversary of the April 15, 1971, firefight that forever changed the lives of those who survived.
Mr. Zwit, 70, a former Chicago cop who later ran his own investigations agency, died last month at his home in La Grange Park of bladder cancer, though his doctors think his wartime exposure to the chemical Agent Orange contributed to his health problems, according to his wife Grace.
Young Jim grew up on the Southwest Side and went to St. Bede the Venerable grade school and Bogan High School.
He was a student at what was then called the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle when he decided to enlist in the Army. He served in the 501st Battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
A mosaic at the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center on the Far North Side tells the story of Jewish immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Titled “Fabric of Our Lives” and created in 1980, its images and words portray challenges they faced, coming to Chicago and elsewhere, typically from Eastern Europe, with little money, no jobs and often no grasp of English.
The 15-feet-tall, 13-feet-wide, glass-tile mosaic had suffered from the onslaught of decades of Chicago winters but restored in October at a cost of about $8,000 by Miriam Socoloff and Cynthia Weiss, the artists who originally had assembled the work in 1980.
The mosaic titled “Fabric of Our Lives” at the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center, 3003 W. Touhy Ave.Provided
“In addition to our strong feelings for the themes of the mosaic, it was profoundly meaningful and satisfying to repair something,” says Weiss, 67, amid a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic and loss. “2020 was such a hard year. There was so much devastation.”
The Horwich JCC, at 3003 W. Touhy Ave., is in a neighborhood that’s fairly heavily Jewish.
One of the tenets of Judaism is that people should work to repair the world. That made it even more meaningful to painstakingly restore the mosaic, Weiss says.
MINNEAPOLIS — The chief county medical examiner who ruled George Floyd’s death a homicide testified Friday that the way police held him down and compressed his neck “was just more than Mr. Floyd could take,” given the condition of his heart.
Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, took the stand at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin for pressing his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what prosecutors said was as much as 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man lay pinned to the pavement last May.
Baker concluded last year that Floyd died from cardiopulmonary arrest — that is, his heart stopped — complicated by the way police held him down.
When Baker was asked how police “subdual, restraint and neck compression” led to Floyd’s death, he said that Floyd had severe underlying heart disease and an enlarged heart that needed more oxygen than normal to function, as well as narrowing of two heart arteries.
Baker said being involved in a scuffle raises adrenaline, which asks the heart to beat even faster and supply more oxygen.
“And in my opinion, the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of that, those heart conditions,” the medical examiner said.
Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. Floyd was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at the white officer to get off him sparked protests and scattered violence around the U.S.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson has argued that the now-fired white officer did what he was trained to do and was not responsible for Floyd’s death. Floyd had high blood pressure and heart disease, and an autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.
But the autopsy itself ruled out heart attack, aneurysm and other causes.
Baker testified that his examination of Floyd’s heart found no “visible or microscopic previous damage” to the heart muscle. Baker also said he noticed no injury to Floyd’s brain from either trauma or oxygen deprivation. And he said he did not notice any pills or pill fragments in Floyd’s stomach.
Other medical experts called as prosecution witnesses have likewise blamed Floyd’s death on the way he was pinned down on the ground.
Dr. Lindsey Thomas, a forensic pathologist who retired in 2017 from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office and did not work on Floyd’s case, testified earlier Friday that she agreed with Baker’s findings, but was even more explicit, saying the “primary mechanism of death” was asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen.
She said she reached that conclusion mostly from video that showed Floyd struggling to breathe.
“This is a death where both the heart and lungs stopped working. The point is, it’s due to law enforcement subdual, restraint and compression,” Thomas said. She said that there was nothing in Floyd’s autopsy that noted that, but she said that is not uncommon.
Baker said other significant conditions listed in the death certificate are things that played a role, but didn’t directly cause Floyd’s death.
“Mr. Floyd’s use of fentanyl did not cause the subdual or neck restraint. His heart disease did not cause the the subdual or the neck restraint,” he said.
Baker also said he did not watch the harrowing video of the arrest before examining Floyd so that he would not be influenced by what he saw.
“I was aware that at least one video had gone viral on the Internet, but I intentionally chose not to look at that until I had examined Mr. Floyd,” he said. “I did not want to bias my exam by going in with any preconceived notions that might lead me down one pathway or another.”
Under cross-examination by Nelson, Thomas said she believed Floyd’s heart was “slightly” enlarged.
Nelson asked Thomas about what could cause a heart to suddenly stop beating, noting that Floyd’s bigger heart needed more blood and was working hard in a moment of stress and adrenaline, and that one of his arteries had a 90% blockage.
Thomas said any blockage over 70% to 75% could be used to explain death, in the absence of another cause. But she also said some people can live just fine with an artery that is fully blocked.
The defense attorney pressed Thomas by posing a hypothetical question.
“Let’s assume you found Mr. Floyd dead in his residence. No police involvement, no drugs, right?. The only thing you found would be these facts about his heart. What would you conclude to be the cause of death?” Nelson asked.
“In that very narrow set of circumstances, I would probably conclude that the cause of death was his heart disease,” Thomas replied.
She also agreed that fentanyl can slow a person’s breathing and that methamphetamine can cause the heart to work harder and cause cardiac arrhythmia — a potentially lethal heart rhythm disturbance.
In response to another hypothetical posed by Nelson, she agreed that she would certify Floyd’s death as an overdose if there were no other explanations.
But during re-questioning, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell ridiculed the defense attorney’s hypotheticals and quickly got Thomas to repeat that the cause of Floyd’s death was the restraint by police.
“Aren’t those questions a lot like asking, ‘Mrs. Lincoln, if we take John Wilkes Booth out of this …,'” Blackwell began, before Nelson objected.
For the first time, a seat designated for Chauvin’s family was occupied Friday, by a woman. She wasn’t immediately identified. Chauvin’s marriage ended in divorce in the months after Floyd’s death.
Also on Friday, Judge Peter Cahill called in a juror and questioned her about whether she had been subject to any outside influences. She replied that she briefly saw TV coverage with the sound off and said that her mother-in-law had texted her, “Looks like it was a bad day” but that she didn’t reply.
The 21-month-old boy critically injured during a road-rage incident on Lake Shore Drive earlier this week continues to show “some signs of improvement,” doctors treating him at Lurie Children’s Hospital said Friday.
But Kayden Swann remained in “very critical” condition.
“Over the past 24 hours, the patient has remained critically ill but has been starting to demonstrate some improvement in brain function,” Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, medical director of Lurie’s pediatric ICU, said in a statement Friday. “He continues to require a ventilator to support his breathing and ICU therapies to continue to support his brain during this tenuous period.”
Kayden’s mother, Jalisa Hooks, had set up a Gofundme account for “aftercare cost for baby Kayden.” The site had raised about $1,950 of a $3,000 goal as of 2:30 p.m. Friday.
A bullet struck Kayden in the head late Tuesday morning as he rode in a car on Lake Shore Drive. Kayden was in the back seat of the car, which was nearly struck by an SUV trying to merge onto the highway near Soldier Field about 11:30 a.m. The drivers of both car got into an argument, eventually leading to the SUV driver opening fire, investigators have said.
Kayden was shot in his temple and rushed to the hospital by a bystander. He was placed in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator to protect his brain.
Police have not announced the arrest of the shooter.
Jushawn Brown, 43, of Englewood, was driving the car Kayden was riding in. Brown had a 9 mm handgun and was charged Thursday with possessing a weapon without proper state identification and later released on bond.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence Brown fired his weapon or displayed it during the road-rage incident.
A speeding car struck the end of a median wall Friday morning, seriously injuring an infant and shutting down a Jane Byrne Interchange ramp for five hours.
The driver of the car was cited for failure to secure the child in a car seat, state police said.
Four adults were also injured in the two-car crash, which happened about 7 a.m. on the ramp from northbound Dan Ryan to the westbound Eisenhower, according to Illinois State Police.
One car occupied by four people in their 20s and a 6-month-old boy tried to change lanes and struck an end-cap barrier of a median wall, state police said. The car spun out and was struck by another vehicle.
A citizen attempted to drive the infant to the hospital themselves, but then pulled over and awaited an ambulance, which took the infant to Stroger Hospital, according to Chicagofire spokesman Larry Merritt.
Merritt said four other adults, three male and one female, were taken in either fair or serious condition to Stroger and Mount Sinai Hospitals. State police said they were expected to survive their injuries.
State police said the person in the other vehicle was uninjured.
The driver of the car that spun out was cited for failure to secure a child under 8 years old, driving too fast for conditions, improper lane usage and damage to a highway structure.
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