Theaster Gates hopes his Kenwood Gardens project brings art, food, serenity, and love to the South Side.Read More
Tending a Garden of Love in KenwoodLynette Smithon October 14, 2021 at 2:49 pm Read More »
A 20-year-old man was fatally shot Oct. 13, 2021, in Austin. | Sun-Times file photo
The 20-year-old was standing in the 4800 block of West Crystal Street when someone in a passing car fired shots, Chicago police said.
Authorities have released the name of a man killed Wednesday afternoon in a drive-by shooting in Austin on the West Side.
Laquan Jernigan, 20, was standing in the 4800 block of West Crystal Street when someone in a passing car fired shots about 4:20 p.m., Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
He was struck in the chest and driven to West Suburban Medical Center where he died, police said. Jernigan lived in the Galewood neighborhood.
Police reported no arrests.
Tony Award Winner and multi-Tony nominee André De Shields will be honored by the Sarah Siddons Society when he is presented the organization’s 66th Annual Actor of the Year Award at their benefit on October 25th in Chicago.
The 2021 benefit will include an interview between André De Shields and Chicago Midwest Emmy-Award recipient Ed Tracy, congratulatory messages from influential individuals in his life, musical selections from many of his memorable shows performed by some of Chicago’s most talented rising stars under the musical direction of David Fiorello and the induction of the Sarah Siddons Society 2021 Scholarship Recipients. The event is being produced by Board Member and long-time Chicago event producer Denise McGowan Tracy.
It will be filmed at The Edge Theater in Chicago. Proof of vaccine and masks will be required for this intimate, live filming. The event will be streamed on November 28th. For more information visit the Society’s webpage http://sarahsiddonssociety.org/
“We feel it is especially meaningful that Chicago’s oldest and most prestigious theater award is going to such a deserving and accomplished actor as André De Shields in the city where he made his professional debut and has given stellar performances with so many legendary theater companies over the years.” Martin Balogh, President, Sarah Siddons Society.
A showstopper at age 75, André De Shields was the triple-crown winner of the 2019 award season, garnering Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Grammy Awards for his universally praised role as Messenger to the Gods, Hermes, in Hadestown. In an unparalleled career spanning more than half a century, De Shields has distinguished himself as an actor, director, philanthropist and educator. His defining theatrical performances include roles in the original Broadway productions of The Full Monty (Tony Award nomination), Play On! (Tony Award nomination), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Emmy Award) and the titular role in The Wiz. Ubuntu! www.andredeshields.com.
Since its inception in 1952, the mission of the Society has been to fund scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities including; The Theater Department, Columbia College; The Theatre School at DePaul University; Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications.
As the Chicago White Sox book their tee times for October after being eliminated by the Houston Astros in the 2021 ALDS, they have some reflecting and changes to make over the 2021-22 offseason. After finishing the second half of the season just five games above .500 and losing three of four to the Astros […] Chicago White Sox: 3 key moves to make this offseason – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More
Johneece Cobb speaks about gun violence at schools with reporters outside St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
“I understand that maybe you’re in some pain, baby, and maybe you’re hurt, and I understand that. I’m hurting too. My grandbaby is in a lot of pain.”
With forgiveness in her voice, the grandmother of a 14-year-old girl seriously wounded at a Bronzeville high school had a special plea for the gunman Wednesday.
“I’m assuming this baby that shot my baby is crying for help,” Johneese Cobb said as her granddaughter lay in intensive care, recovering from two gunshot wounds. “I want to tell him that God will help you if you ask for it.
“I understand that maybe you’re in some pain, baby, and maybe you’re hurt, and I understand that,” Cobb continued. “I’m hurting too. My grandbaby is in a lot of pain. Maybe you feel bad enough to call up here and speak to Father [Michael Pfleger] and say, ‘Help me, I want to make this right.’ I advise you, baby, to do that.”
Talking to reporters outside St. Sabina’s Church, Cobb said she had spoken to her granddaughter that morning. “She said, ‘Tell everybody thank you. Please tell the shooter to turn himself in.”
The gunman was waiting outside Wendell Phillips Academy and opened fire as a security guard opened a door to let students out around 3:15 p.m., according to police.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Evidence technicians note a mark on a door where it was struck by a bullet after a 14-year-old girl and a security guard were both shot Tuesday afternoon outside Wendell Phillips Academy High School in the 3800 block of South Giles in Bronzeville.
Cobb said her granddaughter was shot twice while in the doorway. “She was inside the school on her way out to meet her mother when the shots rang out,” she said. “They went through the door and they hit her. The door slowed those bullets down and saved my baby’s life.”
The guard was also hit by gunfire and is also recovering. Cobb said she believed he tried to shield the students. “I think that man was trying to save those babies and he took those bullets,” she said.
The girl underwent surgery Tuesday evening at Comer Children’s Hospital, Cobb said. “Her color is back in her face. … She’s stabilized, she’s going to make a full recovery. There’s no major damage to her organs.”
A bullet remains lodged in the girl’s lower abdomen, she said.
Cobb described her granddaughter as “a sheltered child, a little bitty fun-loving child. She’s so shy, she’s so innocent, y’all. She’s a good kid and helped raise her siblings. Really in the house all the time. So her first year of high school was her way of getting out of the house.
“She was shot at school, where she was supposed to be,” Cobb said. “Right now, I’m so grateful to God that my grandbaby will live and do great things. Keep praying, y’all.”
Speaking at an unrelated news conference Wednesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez called the shooting “tragic.”
“It’s concerning to me that it got this close, as our children were coming out at the exit door,” he said. “It is something that, frankly, it’s a community challenge that we have to address. And what I would say is it can’t be the schools by themselves. It really can’t.
“This is something I’m going to need help from the community, I’m going to need help. The mayor’s already shared with me that we’re going to work together and with all the agencies to look at this.”
Martinez said a crisis team was at the school Wednesday to help students and staff deal with their trauma.
Phillips was one of a handful of schools that opted to remove its two in-school officers last year. District records show the high school still employed six unarmed security guards, including the one who was shot. It’s unclear whether they could have prevented the shooting, however, since they don’t always stand outside during a dismissal and activists note their presence has not always deterred shooters in other situations.
Pfleger said he and others were putting up a $5,500 reward for arrest of the shooter.
Pfleger also called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to declare a state of emergency and come up with a plan on “how we’re going to stop this. It just keeps getting worse.”
“Give the city a soul again,” he said, addressing both Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “Let’s rebuild lives, let’s rebuild this city.”
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Father Michael Pfleger speaks about reducing crime with a reporter at St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.
At least 162 children 15 years old and younger have been shot in Chicago so far this year, a 24% increase over the number of children shot over the same period last year, according to Sun-Times data.
In September, two 15-year-old students from Simeon Career Academy were shot and killed on the same day in separate attacks, one of them not far from the South Side campus.
BRAVE, the violence prevention youth council of St. Sabina, is circulating a petition urging Pritzker to declare a state of emergency.
“How many children, how many lives before we say it’s a state of emergency? We are at a state of emergency now,” Pfleger said. “And I believe that the governor is cautious, doesn’t want to embarrass the city or, you know, overstep the city. I don’t care about feelings anymore.
“I don’t care who’s embarrassed, I don’t care who’s hurt,” he said. “My reality is, is that we are right now at a state of emergency that needs to be called with a plan and a strategy that’s going to be enacted for this city to deal with this violence because it keeps getting worse and worse and worse.”
Pfleger also called on the city to allocate more resources toward mental health programs to help children deal with the trauma of violence.
“Imagine all those kids at Phillips right now, how traumatized they are by one of their freshman being shot at the school, their security guard being shot,” he said. “And this is throughout the South and the West sides. The trauma that’s suffered by families, by whole communities, by whole neighborhoods. We’re not dealing with it.”
Contributing: Nader Issa
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