A man was in critical condition after a shooting late Thursday morning on Interstate 57 near Halsted Street.
Paramedics responded shortly after 11 a.m. for a shooting victim west of Halsted Street in the inbound lanes, according to Chicagofire spokesman Larry Merritt.
The man, in his 20s, was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Merritt said.
All inbound lanes were closed and traffic was being diverted off at 111th Street, according to Illinois State Police.
They yell at each other. They lean on their horns. There are fistfights.
Nobody gets killed, but it’s not pleasant.
Road rage is a problem in London, too.
People have been stabbed, punched, kicked and bitten. People have been dragged from their cars.
Almost nobody gets shot. That’s pretty rare. But last year the United Kingdom counted 2,300 road rage crimes.
Road rage is problem in Rome, too.
It was just last November that a woman in Rome, furious that her car had been run off the road by another car, grabbed a gun, walked up to a couple of teenagers and said, “Y’all better call 911 because somebody is going to die.”
No, wait. That wasn’t Rome, Italy.
That was Rome, Tennessee, which explains the “y’all.”
In actually fact, road rage is a problem in Italy, as it is in many countries, but almost never does anybody in Italy or one of those other countries pull a gun, let alone shoot somebody.
That would be a very American thing.
Emboldened to be belligerent
One of the dumbest things we hear from the pro-gun absolutists is that the 393 million guns in civilian hands in the United States make for a more “polite” society. Because, you know, when everybody is armed nobody dares to be rude.
We think the opposite is likely true, that all our guns make us more belligerent. They embolden us to be jerks. Our guns make for busy morgues, not for a more polite society.
The evidence is all around us. The United States is the gun murder capital of the world. But today let’s specifically consider the evidence from road rage incidents because that’s on our minds right now. It’s the horrific news of the day.
A little boy, 21-month-old Kayden Swann, is lying in critical condition in a Chicago hospital, hovering between life and death, because somebody on Lake Shore Drive on Tuesday put a bullet in his head during a classic case of American-style road rage.
Apparently, somebody got angry at somebody else when one car did not allow another into a lane on Lake Shore Drive south of Soldier Field. Both cars continued north, the police say, and there was shooting both ways and little Kayden, sitting in the back of one car, was shot in the temple.
Here’s a safe bet: If our nation were not so damned gun-happy, little Kayden would be home right now watching “Sesame Street.” The drivers of the two cars on Lake Shore Drive still might have had a confrontation on Tuesday, but maybe not. Two Harvard University studies, one based on 2002 data from Arizona and the second based on 2004 data nationwide, have found that people who are armed are more likely to engage in road rage.
And even if the drivers had still had it out, nobody would have been shot because nobody would have had a gun.
Guns jack up deaths
All around the world, road rage kills in one common way. People step on the gas and drive like angry fools and crash and die. That happens everywhere. In the United States, according to data compiled by the online driver’s education company SafeMotorist.com, about 66% of all traffic fatalities can be linked to aggressive driving.
But only in the United States — where there are almost 1 1/2 times more guns than there are cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles — does the presence of guns jack up the number of deaths from road rage. SafeMotorist.com estimates that about 37% of the fatalities linked to aggressive driving are caused by a firearm.
About 30 people are murdered each year in road rage confrontations — mostly with guns — auto insurance industry groups report. And the total number of cases involving guns may be creeping up. In 2016, the most recent year for which we could find data, the number was 620.
All of this makes a mockery of the gun lobby’s mantra that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The truth is that people with guns kill people, with appallingly irresponsibility and in shameful numbers. We are a stupid country that way.
Any fool can buy a gun
The ultimate irony of how road rage plays out in our country is that the cars and drivers are regulated but the guns are not.
Every legal vehicle on the road in the United States has an identification number, registered with the vehicle’s owner, that can be traced by the police. Every legal vehicle has insurance coverage. Every legal driver has to have a license — and has to pass a test to get that license.
Any old fool can’t just drive a car.
But guns and gun owners are not registered or licensed in the same way. Guns are bought and sold at garage sales, from anonymous seller to anonymous buyer. Gun owners don’t have to pass a test. In many states, they don’t even need a permit.
Any fool can buy a gun.
When we started writing this editorial about three hours ago, Kayden Swann was alive and fighting to stay that way. His doctors said he was making “progress.” Now, before posting this editorial, we’ll have to make a call to see if he’s still alive.
How we pray he is.
Americans kill each other with guns so often and fast. It’s hard to keep up.
Police were searching for a car wanted in three separate instances of gunfire Thursday morning on Lake Shore Drive near Bronzeville and on Halsted Street in University Village.
It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured as police searched for the wanted vehicle, described as a gray Nissan, according to preliminary information from Chicago police.
The first call of gunfire came at 8:55 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive near 35th Street, police said. A male in another vehicle reported being shot at.
At 8:57 a.m., another male in a vehicle reported being shot at by someone in a gray Nissan on northbound Lake Shore Drive near 25th Street, police said.
Then, at 9:05 a.m., police said they received another call of gunfire from a gray Nissan in the 500 block of South Halsted Street, near Harrison Street and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The victim was a female inside another vehicle, police said.
The Blackhawks made their second trade with the Panthers in less than a week Thursday, acquiring forwards Henrik Borgstrom and Brett Connolly, defenseman Riley Stillman and a seventh-round draft pick as part of a six-item swap.
Forward Lucas Wallmark and defenseman Lucas Carlsson were sent to Florida in the trade.
The Hawks previously acquired forward Vinnie Hinostroza in exchange for minor-leaguer Brad Morrison in another trade with the Panthers last Friday.
Connolly’s name had been floated as a bad contract the Hawks could acquire for assets, as the 28-year-old wing has two years left after this season with a $3.5 million cap hit. He could potentially turn his career around, though, as he tallied 46 points in 2018-19 and 33 points in 2019-20 before plummeting to just four points so far this season.
Borgstrom and the draft pick are payment for taking Connolly on. The former was the 26th overall draft pick in 2016 and seemed to be living up to his potential in 2018-19, when he scored 18 points in 50 games as a rookie. But the 6-3 center spent most of 2019-20 in the AHL and 2021 in Finland.
Hawks general manager Stan Bowman has a history of gambling on former first-round picks who fell out of favor with their original teams — Dylan Strome and Alex Nylander are two recent examples.
He’ll hope to similarly revive Borgstrom, who was a college teammate of Ian Mitchell at the University of Denver. Per a source, Borgstrom was a late addition to the trade, taking the place of a higher draft pick.
Meanwhile, Carlsson and Stillman are a like-for-like swap: two 23-year-old defenseman who have waffled on the NHL-AHL borderline during recent seasons and could benefit from a fresh opportunity. Stillman, the son of longtime NHL star Cory Stillman, has played 42 games for the Panthers over the past two seasons.
Wallmark, who played for the Panthers last season before signing in Chicago last fall, had fallen out of favor this season and needed to be unloaded to keep the Hawks below the NHL’s 50-contract limit.
MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd died of a lack of oxygen from being pinned facedown on the pavement with his hands cuffed behind him, a medical expert testified Thursday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.
Floyd’s breathing while he was being held down by Chauvin and other officers was too shallow to take in enough oxygen, which in turn damaged his brain and caused an abnormal heart rhythm that made his heart stop, said Dr. Martin Tobin, a lung and critical care specialist at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and Loyola University’s medical school in Chicago.
He took the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to establish that it was Chauvin’s actions — not Floyd’s illegal drug use and underlying health conditions, as the defense contends — that killed the 46-year-old Black man last May.
Tobin, analyzing a graphic presentation of the three officers pinning Floyd for what prosecutors say was almost 9 1/2 minutes, said Chauvin’s knee was “virtually on the neck for the vast majority of time.” He said it was “more than 90% of the time in my calculations.”
But Tobin said other factors worsened the effect on Floyd: He pointed out that Officer J. Kueng held Floyd’s left hand upward, and Chauvin’s right knee compressed Floyd’s side, meaning “the ability to expand his left side is enormously impaired.”
Tobin used simple language, with terms like “pump handle” and “bucket handle” to describe the act of breathing for jurors. At one point, he invited them to “examine your own necks, all of you in the jury right now” to better understand the effect of a knee on a person’s neck.
Jody Stiger, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant serving as a prosecution witness, said Wednesday that based on his review of video evidence, Chauvin applied pressure to Floyd’s neck or neck area from the time officers began pinning Floyd to the ground until paramedics began to move him to a stretcher.
“That particular force did not change during the entire restraint period?” prosecutor Steve Schleicher asked as he showed the jury a composite of five still images.
“Correct,” replied Stiger, who on Tuesday testified Chauvin used excessive force against Floyd.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by pointing out what he said were moments in the video footage when Chauvin’s knee did not appear to be on Floyd’s neck but on his shoulder blade area or the base of his neck.
Stiger did not give much ground, saying the officer’s knee in some of the contested images still seemed to be near Floyd’s neck, though he agreed his weight might have shifted at times.
In other testimony, the lead Minnesota state investigator on the case, James Reyerson, initially agreed with Nelson that Floyd seemed to say in a police body-camera video of his arrest, “I ate too many drugs.”
But when a prosecutor played a longer clip of the video, Reyerson said he believed what Floyd really said was “I ain’t do no drugs.”
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. A panicky-sounding Floyd struggled and claimed to be claustrophobic as police tried to put him in a squad car, and they pinned him to the pavement.
Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him sparked protests and scattered violence around the U.S.
Nelson has argued that the now-fired white officer “did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career,” and he has disputed that Chauvin’s actions were what killed Floyd. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd’s system.
Breahna Giles, a state forensic scientist, testified Wednesday that pills found in the SUV Floyd was driving contained methamphetamine and fentanyl. Another witness, forensic chemist Susan Meith, testified that remnants of a pill found in the back of the police squad car also contained methamphetamine and fentanyl. Earlier testimony revealed that that pill contained DNA from Floyd’s saliva.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, in his first gun control measures since taking office, announced a half-dozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.”
“It is actually a public health crisis,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.
Greeting the families of gun violence victims and activists, he assured them: “We’re absolutely determined to make change.”
His Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge Biden made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” to address gun violence, after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue. His announcement came the same day as yet another shooting, this one in South Carolina, where five people were killed.
But Thursday’s announcement underscores the limitations of Biden’s executive power to act on guns. They include moves to tighten regulations on homemade guns and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention, but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda Biden laid out on the campaign trail.
Indeed, the White House has repeatedly emphasized the need for legislative action to tackle the issue. But while the House passed a background-check bill last month, gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.
Biden is tightening regulations of buyers of “ghost guns” — homemade firearms that usually are assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine and often lack serial numbers used to trace them. It’s legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop and there is no federal requirement for a background check. The goal is to “help stop the proliferation of these firearms,” according to the White House.
The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule aimed at reining in ghost guns within 30 days, though details of the rule weren’t immediately issued.
A second proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces, like the one used by the Boulder, Colorado, shooter in a rampage last month that left 10 dead. The rule will designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles, which require a federal license to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 tax.
The department also is publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own “red flag” laws. Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow the police to confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
The department also will begin to provide more data on firearms trafficking, starting with a new comprehensive report on the issue. The administration says that hasn’t been done in more than two decades.
Biden is also nominating David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
David Chipman speaks at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on assault weapons on Capitol Hill in Washington Sept. 25, 2019.Andrew Harnik/AP
The Biden administration will also make investments in community violence intervention programs, which are aimed at reducing gun violence in urban communities, across five federal agencies.
Officials said the executive actions were “initial steps” completed during Garland’s first weeks on the job and more may be coming.
The ATF is currently run by an acting director, Regina Lombardo. Gun-control advocates have emphasized the significance of this position in enforcing gun laws, and Chipman is certain to win praise from this group. During his time as a senior policy adviser with Giffords, he spent considerable effort pushing for greater regulation and enforcement on ghost guns, changes to the background check system and measures to reduce the trafficking of illegal firearms.
Chipman spent 25 years as an agent at the ATF, where he worked on stopping a trafficking ring that sent illegal firearms from Virginia to New York, and served on the ATF’s SWAT team. Chipman is a gun owner.
He is an explosives expert and was among the team involved in investigating the Oklahoma City bombing and the first World Trade Center bombing. He also was involved in investigating a series of church bombings in Alabama in the 1990s. He retired from the ATF in 2012.
The White House fact sheet said Chipman has worked “to advance common-sense gun safety laws.”
During his campaign, Biden promised to prioritize new gun control measures as president, including enacting universal background check legislation, banning online sales of firearms and the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But gun-control advocates have said that while they were heartened by signs from the White House that they took the issue seriously, they’ve been disappointed by the lack of early action.
With the announcement of the new measures, however, advocates lauded Biden’s first moves to combat gun violence.
“Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic, and begin to make good on President Biden’s promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
Feinblatt in particular praised the move to regulate ghost guns, which he said “will undoubtedly save countless lives,” and lauded Chipman as an “invaluable point person” in the fight against illegal gun trafficking. He also said the group is looking forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration on further gun control measures, but it’s unclear what next moves the White House, or lawmakers on Capitol Hill, will be able to take.
Biden himself expressed uncertainty late last month when asked if he had the political capital to pass new gun control proposals, telling reporters, “I haven’t done any counting yet.”
For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. Ghost guns have increasingly turned up at crime scenes and in recent years have been turning up more and more when federal agents are purchasing guns in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals.
It is hard to say how many are circulating on the streets, in part because in many cases police departments don’t even contact the federal government about the guns because they can’t be traced.
Some states, like California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers be stamped on ghost guns.
The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80-percent receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required.
A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage. And in 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles.
Associated Press writer Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
A Chicago man admitted to a federal judge Thursday that he set fire to a Chicago police SUV amid rioting downtown last May, and that he bought fireworks and lighter fluid in anticipation of protests in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
Jacob Michael Fagundo, 23, now faces a likely sentence of eight to 14 months behind bars after pleading guilty to obstructing law enforcement amid a civil disorder. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman set Fagundo’s sentencing for July 14.
Prosecutors filed federal charges against Fagundo in connection with the incident late last month. Other federal prosecutions stemming from last summer’s unrest have led to a recent series of guilty pleas as well as a sentencing.
Fagundo told the judge he is about to finish his bachelor’s degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He said he was laid off in March 2020 after working as a gallery technician at the school.
Jacob FagundoChicago Police
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cooke told the judge Thursday that Fagundo bought fireworks, lighter fluid and other products at a department store on May 29, 2020, ahead of the George Floyd protests. The next day, Cooke said Fagundo joined with others and spray-painted a Chicago police vehicle.
The evening of May 30, 2020, Cooke said Fagundo discovered the CPD SUV in a garage at 30 E. Kinzie St. The prosecutor said Fagundo and others shattered some of the vehicle’s windows, including its rear windshield. Then, about 6:45 p.m., Cooke said Fagundo lit a firework and tossed it through the SUV’s rear window frame.
Fagundo fled when police arrived, Cooke said. The prosecutor said the vehicle was a total loss, and it cost CPD $58,125 to replace it. The judge is expected to order Fagundo to pay that amount in restitution at sentencing, giving him credit for any amount he paid in the meantime.
Another man, Timothy O’Donnell, is also charged in federal court with setting fire to a CPD vehicle while wearing a Joker mask during last May’s riots. Though that case is still pending, others have recently begun to progress through Chicago’s federal court.
Brandon Pegues pleaded guilty to a gun charge late last month,admitting he fled police near downtown early on May 31, 2020, only to fall and drop what turned out to be a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. A prosecutor said police also found a hammer on Pegues.
Also last month, a judge gave more than three years in prison to D Angelo D. Chester, who prosecutors said ran and tossed a gun after police spotted him at 9:24 p.m. on June 3, 2020 — 24 minutes after the 9 p.m. curfew Mayor Lori Lightfoot set as a result of the rioting. The judge pointed to Chester’s criminal history in handing down the sentence.
On Wednesday, Matthew Rupert of Galesburg pleaded guilty in federal court in Minnesota to setting fire to a Sprint store in Minneapolis. Rupert was arrested in Chicago on May 31, 2020 and accused by the feds of traveling to Minneapolis and then Chicago to loot and riot.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The gunman who killed five people including a prominent doctor in South Carolina was former NFL player Phillip Adams, who killed himself early Thursday, according to a source who was briefed on the investigation.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said Adams’ parents live near the doctor’s home in Rock Hill, and that he had been treated by the doctor. The source said Adams killed himself after midnight with a .45-caliber weapon.
The York County Sheriff’s Office said they had searched for hours before finding the suspect in a nearby home.
Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69, were pronounced dead at the scene along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5, the York County coroner’s office said.
A man who had been working at the home, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found shot to death outside, and a sixth person was hospitalized with “serious gunshot wounds,” York County Sheriff’s Office’s spokesperson Trent Faris said.
Adams, 33, played in 78 NFL games over five seasons for six teams. A safety and special teams player from South Carolina State, he joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick.
Rarely a starter, Adams also was with New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets, finishing his career with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.
As a rookie late in the 2010 season, Adams suffered a severe ankle injury that required surgery that included several screws being inserted into the leg. He never played for the 49ers again, getting released just before the 2011 season began and signing with New England. He moved next to the Raiders, where he had 2 concussions in a 3 game period in 2012.
Whether Adams suffered long-lasting injuries from his concussions as a player wasn’t immediately clear. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a broad settlement between the league and its former players over such injuries, because he hadn’t retired by 2014.
Adams’ father told a Charlotte television station that he blamed football for problems that may have led his son to commit Wednesday’s violence.
“I can say he’s a good kid,” Alonzo Adams told WCNC-TV. “I think the football messed him up.”
Dr. Robert Lesslie in Rock Hill, S.C in March 12, 2009.John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP
Faris said early Thursday that deputies were called around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday to the Lesslies’ home, and spent hours searching for the suspect before finding him in a nearby home.
“We have found the person we believe is responsible and we are with him at this time and that’s all I can say about the suspect,” Faris said, adding that they had no reason to believe anyone else was involved. “We are currently at his house and we are serving a search warrant.”
Later Thursday, a few sheriff’s deputies were posted near the Lesslie home, which is far beyond an arched stone gate, up a long paved driveway and not visible from the road. The Adams home, roughly a mile down the road, is a modest, one-story brick house with several cars in the driveway.
Lesslie had worked for decades as an emergency room doctor in Rock Hill, board-certified in both emergency medicine and occupational medicine and serving as emergency department medical director for nearly 15 years at Rock Hill General Hospital, according to his website.
He founded two urgent care centers in the area and wrote a weekly medical column for The Charlotte Observer. He also wrote a book, “Angels in the ER,” collecting what he termed “inspiring true stories” from his time in the emergency department.
“I know without a doubt that life is fragile,” Lesslie wrote, according to an excerpt. “I have come to understand that humility may be the greatest virtue. And I am convinced we need to take the time to say the things we deeply feel to the people we deeply care about.”
Faris said Lesslie was very well known in the Rock Hill community.
“Dr. Lesslie was my doctor growing up,” Faris said. “Dr. Lesslie has been one of those people that everybody knows. He started Riverview Medical Center in Rock Hill and it’s been a staple in Rock Hill for years.”
A biography page said he and his wife raised four children, and that Lesslie received his degree at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Rock Hill is a city in northernmost South Carolina about 25 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Contributors include AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in New York; Josh Dubow in Alameda, Calif.; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Nell Redmond in Rock Hill.
Kudos to the Chicago Park District for expanding the Montrose Beach Dunes Natural Area on the city’s North Side. The additional 3.1 acres will provide more permanent protection for endangered piping plovers Monty and Rose and an array of other rare flora and fauna.
This is a big win for Chicago’s breeding birds as well as the many species that utilize the area as a crucial stopover on their way north to the Arctic. This is also a moment to think about what’s possible when we know that bird populations have declined by as much as 30% since the 1970s.
SEND LETTERS TO:[email protected]. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be 350 words or less.
Too often, we have needed to defend the environment against attacks rather than seek opportunities for expansion. In this case, we have something to celebrate in a time when nature has provided an outlet for so many during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The park district has made investing in native ecosystems a priority as natural areas now encompass 1,919.9 acres of the district’s approximately 8,800 acres. The benefits of these areas are many. The dune area at Montrose, for example, is home to a globally rare panne habitat that acts as a natural barrier against erosion while storing precious carbon in the fight against climate change.
This is a victory for natural areas and for park visitors from all over the city. It shows the promise of what is possible in a high-traffic urban area with a variety of uses such as those at Montrose Beach. It also shows what’s possible when a group of citizens comes together to rally around the environment and make their voices heard.
A special thank you to Volunteer Site Steward Leslie Borns for her years of work and to Ald. James Cappleman for his strong support of the habitat addition.
Bob Dolgan, maker of the the documentary film “Monty and Rose.”
A slap in the face to the police
On Dec. 17, 2018, Edward Brown found a handgun and test-fired it on the Metra tracks on the South Side. Two police officers, Conrad Gary and Eduardo Marmolejo, arrived to investigate the shots fired and were struck and killed by a train as they chased Brown.
This was a reckless and irresponsible act by Brown. He should have faced many years in prison. Yet, I am sorry to see, he was sentenced this week to just one year in prison.
If a homeless person were to light a fire in a vacant building to keep warm and the fire spread and killed a firefighter, the person would be charged with arson and murder. And he would not be sentenced to just a year in prison. Though the fire was just a reckless act, like Brown firing the gun.
Officers Gary and Marmolejo are gone forever, whereas Brown still has a full life ahead of him once he’s out prison. This is a slap in the face to the families of the deceased officers and to all Chicago police officers.
For a city of just over 100,000 souls, Lansing, Michigan, has an outsized basketball tradition. It all starts, of course, with Earvin Johnson, who was nicknamed Magic by a local sportswriter when he was still at Everett High School. Magic won a state championship with Everett, a national championship with Michigan State, and then an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers — all in a four-season span.
A few years after Magic left Michigan State, his old coach, Jud Heathcote, recruited an undersized forward from Washington, D.C., named Carlton Valentine. Heathcote would remember Valentine as “a good enough player” whose teams went 21-38 his junior and senior years. Valentine played five years in Sweden before returning to Michigan to marry a local schoolteacher, raise two sons, and coach high school basketball.
The good-enough player turned out to be great at molding young basketball talent, starting with his sons Drew and Denzel. When they were boys, he pushed them through the “square-up drill”— a pull-up jumper off one dribble — for hours and hours. When they were young men, he coached them at J.W. Sexton High School, where Denzel won two state championships. (One of Denzel’s teammates was Bryn Forbes, who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks.)
Drew and Denzel are now both big names in Chicago basketball. Denzel is a role-playing guard for the Bulls. This week, Drew was named head coach at Loyola University — at 29, the youngest coach in NCAA Division I. Growing up in a basketball family from a basketball town helped him get there.
“I think it was just the consistency that he coached with every day — the passion and the fire that he coached with was inspiring for all the players,” Drew said of playing under his father in high school. “We probably spent 30 minutes a day on just jumping to the ball, simple defensive positioning, and the simple fundamentals from a defensive standpoint are things that have still stuck with me to this day, and that’s kind of where I got my passion for that side of the ball.”
Drew played college basketball at Oakland University, a mid-major team in the Horizon League. Denzel was the more talented player, Drew the better leader. After those state titles at Sexton, Denzel was recruited to Michigan State, his father’s alma mater. The two brothers’ skills ended up complementing each other. From 2013 to 2015, Drew served as a graduate assistant under Spartan coach Tom Izzo. Every day, he drilled his brother on basketball fundamentals, just as their father had drilled them as boys.
“I would say we both kind of took off when we were with each other,” Drew said. “He’s always been a really good player, and he really improved himself. Going from his freshman year to his sophomore year at Michigan State, he really took off, and then he made another huge jump going from his sophomore to his junior year, and those were my two years. I think when he kind of made the biggest jump was when I was around him, and it also benefited me because I had somebody that trusted me and knew that I had his best interests. I think one thing we really worked on was his shooting. He wasn’t a great shooter originally. We really worked on his off-the-dribble 3s. That’s a shot that he’s really gotten good at. That’s kind of where the game has went, and I think he kind of got ahead of it.”
In 2015, Michigan State went to the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament. In 2016, Denzel was a lottery pick for the Bulls. Developing Denzel into an elite player made Drew believe he had a future in coaching.
“It just gave me a ton of confidence that I could do it, that I was good enough, and I could coach high level players,” Drew said.
For ambitious young Lansingites, moving to Chicago is a rite of passage. (Eight North Side bars cater to Michigan State graduates.) Denzel beat Drew here by a year. Drew spent two years as an assistant coach at Oakland University before outgoing Loyola coach Porter Moser hired him in 2017, eventually naming him de facto defensive coordinator. The fact that Denzel was playing for the Bulls helped sell Drew on Chicago.
“It wasn’t the main reason, but it was like a consolation prize,” Drew said. “I wouldn’t have come to Chicago if Coach Moser didn’t have such a great vision for the program, but the fact that my brother was here was an added bonus. The fact that we’re doing what we’re doing what we’re doing under the age of 30 in the same city with one another, the fact that it’s one of the biggest cities in the country, it means a lot. We’re super happy for each other, we’re super proud of each other.”
Drew’s parents have moved to Florida, so he only goes back to Lansing a few times a year. Chicago is home now. He and his wife, Taylor, live in Roscoe Village and are expecting their first child in July. He wouldn’t have made it to a big-time program in a big city, though, without the lessons he learned in a small town that has given the world so much great basketball.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22429864/AP21097760253459.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22429816/Jacob_Fagundo__22.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22429706/AP21098514324321.jpg)