One man was killed and another wounded in a shooting April 18, 2021 in Austin. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
The two men, 43 and 22, were standing on the sidewalk about 11:20 p.m. in the 4900 block of West Madison Street when a male in a silver SUV fired shots at them, Chicago police said.
A man was killed and another man wounded in a shooting late Sunday in Austin on the West Side.
The two men were standing on the sidewalk about 11:20 p.m. in the 4900 block of West Madison Street when a male in a silver SUV fired shots at them, Chicago police said.
One man, 43, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet identified the man.
The other man, 22, was struck in the right leg and transported to the same hospital in good condition, police said.
Area Four detectives are investigating the shooting.
Jaslyn Adams, 7, was shot and killed while at a McDonald’s Thursday afternoon with her father, Jontae Adams, 28, who was seriously wounded. | Provided
Jontae Adams, 28, and his daughter, Jaslyn, were in a car at a McDonald’s parking lot Sunday near Kedzie and Roosevelt when they were shot. The father called his mother moments after the shooting and broke the news to her.
A 7-year-old girl was killed and her father was seriously wounded in a shooting Sunday at a McDonald’s in the Homan Square neighborhood.
The father, Jontae Adams, 28, and his daughter, Jaslyn, were in a car about 4:20 p.m. in a McDonald’s parking lot in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt Road when they were shot, Chicago police said. A McDonald’s employee, who asked not to be named, said two people got out of a gray car in the drive-thru and started shooting at the victim’s car.
Jontae Adams frantically called his mother, Lawanda McMullen, after the shooting.
“He said, ‘Ma, come get me. They just shot my baby,’” McMullen recalled.
The girl, who has three siblings, was shot repeatedly and was taken by police officers to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-TimesChicago Police on Sunday evening investigate a shooting scene where a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed, and her father was seriously wounded while in their car at a McDonald’s in the Homan Square neighborhood.
Her father was shot in the torso and also taken to Stroger, where his condition was listed as serious, police said.
Jaslyn’s aunt, Tawny McMullen, said her niece was a “beautiful” and “really sweet child.”
McMullen said Jaslyn was best friends with her 8-year-old daughter.
Lawanda McMullen, said her granddaughter loved to dance and make TikToks.
Joslyn was a student at Cameron Elementary School. She was nicknamed Pinky “because she was bright” and pink was her favorite color, family members said.
Outside Stroger Hospital, family members begged for an end to violence.
“Put the guns down,” Tawny McMullen pleaded as tears streamed down her face. “Our kids want to play, my kids can’t even go out the door because of [the violence.] Please put the guns down, please. My 8-year-old baby says she don’t even want to go outside to play because she’s scared she’s going to get shot. This has gotta stop.”
Other community activists, including an emotional Andrew Holmes, also called for a ceasefire.
“You just took away somebody’s queen. You just took away a mother’s daughter. You just put hurt on the father — and for what?” said Holmes, who called the shooting “senseless.”
“Every parent has taken a child to McDonald’s to get something to eat. Not to get some bullets.”
No arrests have been made.
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.
In his younger days as a recycling volunteer, back when he was in his early 80’s, retired banker Don Corydon said he would climb atop this box of scrap paper to stomp it down. Now he lets others do the job. | Mark Brown
National Volunteer Week a good time to salute those like 90-year-old retiree, Don Corydon, who keeps busy at suburban recycling center.
Don Corydon volunteers six mornings a week, six months a year at the Crete Lions Club Recycling Center, rising before dawn most days to operate the loading dock doors and help out as needed on the sorting floor.
During the warmer half of the year you can find him on the golf course instead, except on Saturdays and rainy days when he’s back on duty at the recycling center.
Corydon’s fellow Lions Club members can forgive him for slacking off a little during the summer. After all, he’s 90.
This is National Volunteer Week, when we’re supposed to honor the people who step up to donate their time and effort to making our communities better.
Many of those who answer the call to volunteerism are retirees like Corydon, who left a career in banking 25 years ago expecting to fill his time with travel and golf, eventually finding he needed something more.
For six years, he volunteered as a greeter in the emergency room at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, until his wife, Barbara, got sick and needed his full-time care for two years.
After her death 10 years ago, Corydon decided he would volunteer at the recycling center.
“You can’t just sit around and say: ‘World, entertain me!’” he explained.
Corydon’s volunteer efforts were brought to my attention by the folks at Village Woods, the retirement community where he lives, and I jumped at the chance to meet him.
When I arrived, though, Corydon was under the impression I’d made the trip to Crete to learn about the finer points of suburban-style recycling.
He adjusted quickly when I clarified I was there to write about him, but not before I learned the recycling center has no use for Styrofoam or oversized pallets and that the recycling price of cardboard has dropped from $125/ton to $65/ton during the past five years because of “politics” with China or that Corydon can use a crutch to reach high enough to help the forklift operator dump a bucket of scrap steel into the receptacles out back and that “every nickel we make goes back into the community,” mostly for scholarships.
Dressed in his soiled Crete Lions Club sweatshirt and orange work gloves, Corydon didn’t look much like a retired banker, but I got the impression he may have been an unconventional banker at that.
I suppose I got that idea half way through him telling the story of the time he personally repossessed a tugboat from a delinquent commercial borrower by hiring a ship’s captain to assist him with smuggling it out of the harbor.
All the workers at the Crete recycling facility are volunteers, although occasionally someone is “volunteered” through the court system as a way of working off a community service requirement, Corydon says.
Corydon clearly enjoys the camaraderie among the men amidst the nonstop bustle of activity.
“It’s the socialization that counts,” he said.
Corydon says he has three principles that guide him in retirement: “Not to be a burden to my children,” to make things easy (to eliminate stress) and “to give back.”
“It always makes you feel good if you do a good deed. You learned that in Boy Scouts,” he said of the giving back part.
Corydon says he learned the lesson about keeping it simple way back in high school, carrying it through Beloit College as a track athlete and through the Army during the Korean War.
“You can’t put too much pressure on yourself,” he said. “Don’t try to do too many things.”
That doesn’t preclude golf, which is Corydon’s passion, as well as his other source of “socialization.”
He’s been golfing with the same buddies since the mid-1990s, currently at Lincoln Oaks. He said he’s carded three holes-in-one through the years and typically shoots 95 but can reach the mid-80s when the heat of summer loosens up the old joints.
“If I’d known I was going to live this long, I probably would have gone to Florida,” Corydon said, although with his four sons and eight grandchildren still in the area, it didn’t sound like he wanted to be anywhere else.
Every community relies on people like Corydon to coach its youth sports teams, feed the homeless, help out at the nursing homes and animal shelters and perform other vital services.
Sure, they already are receiving the benefits of feeling good about themselves and all that “socialization,” but they should know that we appreciate them, too.
Chicago rap duo Mother Nature believes in timing — and one of their latest singles, “Momentz,” aims to be the vehicle to get their brand of hip-hop recognized by audiences who wants more than the average content heard via mainstream radio.
“‘Momentz’ is a reintroduction for Mother Nature in Chicago, said TRUTH, one-half of the successful duo. “We wanted this project to be something that allowed us to shine as MCs, as well as disrupt the monotony that we see going on right now; a lot of things being regurgitated through the airwaves. We wanted to bring that boom-bap, straight hip-hop ’90s feel while still again just tapping into the consciousness of what’s going on right now. I think ‘Momentz’ gives us that first peek into that window and allows us to understand a little bit deeper about what we bring to the table of who we are.
“Getting back to the essence of what we bring, which is real MCing; something that you can play that’s gonna allow you just to move, think, and have fun.”
Mother Nature, which consists of longtime friends — University of Illinois classmates Klevah and TRUTH — plans to strike while the iron is hot via “Boom-bap,” a hip-hop sub-genre popularized by 1980s and ’90s East Coast rappers.
Buffalo, New York, rap trio Griselda — Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher — are proving that the subgenre continues to resonate with audiences.
“Mother Nature is everything that you didn’t expect — that you didn’t know that you needed,” says TRUTH. “It’s a mix between giving you the medicine and turning up the party at the same time. Definitely something that is a mix between allowing you to feel, as well as pushing you on your journey.”
The duo (who’ve opened up for Run the Jewels, Cupcakke, and Ty Dolla $ign) will release “SZNZ,” on April 20, a 15-track mixtape with features from Valee, The Cool Kids’ Sir Michael Rocks, and Brittney Carter, among others.
Klevah says Mother Nature’s message in their music is “intentional,” as the duo believes the music dictates their place in curating context amid social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s why we got to break s- – – down to build it up, and that’s our approach when we come on records like: ‘Nah, y’all lying or not giving the full scope of you can give,” said Klevah. “That’s what we try to offer to our audience — radical honesty.
“It’s the natural order of things. The world is getting one conscious, and Chicago is getting one conscious for sure. … There’s definitely a need for Mother Nature in both the music sense and in the sense of bringing people back to nature, and a slower pace. Bringing people back to understanding and taking care of each other.”
Mother Nature also runs “The Miseducation of Hip-Hop,” a nonprofit organization.Nicci Briann
Mother Nature’s brand of hip-hop garnered them a cosign from singer/poet Jamila Woods, whom they got to know by attending shows — a relationship that evolved into mentorship, and their signing with Chicago-based, independent record label Closed Sessions.
“In the hip-hop industry, I’m definitely gonna trust a Black girl over anybody,” said Klevah. “Her sisterhood, having that recommendation, and having that trust within definitely secured the situation. I don’t know if we would have gone with it if we didn’t have that extra, Black girl voice say: ‘Yeah, that’s cool. Y’all could do that.”
While Mother Nature achieves followers, cosigns, and critical acclaim, their advocacy is where they want to make a difference via “The Miseducation of Hip-Hop,” their nonprofit organization rooted in mental health, entrepreneurship and community.
“We know what hip-hop has done for us as adults — and growing up — what if we had [Mother Nature] when we were young?,” said TRUTH. “Someone showing us the important pillars of hip-hop, what it’s really about, what you can do with it, and how far it can take you. … It has allowed us to take our hip-hop influence in a whole new direction.”
And what should fans expect to hear from Mother Nature in the future?
Klevah says to expect a well-thought-out project detailing the nuances of creating music during a pandemic.
“It’s just a mixtape; it definitely has elements of an album,” said Klevah. “We got in the studio a couple more times and made a couple more joints that we thought we didn’t need, but we needed on there. And before you know it, we have one of the most solid projects we’ve ever created together.”
BOSTON — Michael Kopech’s progression toward bigger and better things for the White Sox took another significant step Sunday when the 24-year-old right-hander, responding to getting his first start of the season, breezed through the first nine Red Sox he faced at Fenway Park.
After the White Sox squeezed out a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of a doubleheader, manager Tony La Russa announced that Kopech would get the ball in Game 2. Because it was Kopech, he of the electric arm and big future, a buzz was created.
“He’s fired up and we’re fired up to watch him,” La Russa said.
Kopech was up to the moment.
Pitching against the team that traded him as a prospect with Yoan Moncada for Chris Sale in 2016, Kopech breezed through the Red Sox lineup from top to bottom, striking out four and not allowing a ball out of the infield and jump-starting the Sox to a 5-1 victory in Game 2 and a doubleheader sweep. The sweep hiked the Sox’ record to 8-8.
Kopech’s outing, which wasn’t expected to go past three innings, was over after the first two batters of the fourth reached base.
For now, there are no plans to rush Kopech into the starting rotation, even with Lance Lynn going on the injured list Sunday. Lynn is expected to miss just one start, and in his first season back after missing 2019 because of Tommy John surgery and opting out of 2020, Kopech has worked as a multi-innings reliever.
“He wants to be a starter,” La Russa said. “He understands that he’s getting his feet wet the way he is, because he’s been pitching in pressure situations. The days he gets to watch our veteran starters, who already know how to work in between, it’s the best preparation for him. Especially as we build up the strength in his arm.”
A seven-inning game, on two days rest after his fourth relief appearance against the Indians Thursday, was a good place to fit him into a start Sunday.
La Russa had said maybe three innings, but at 33 pitches he let Kopech start the fourth. After walking Kike Hernandez and allowing a single to Alex Verdugo, Kopech was replaced by Matt Foster, who gave up an RBI single to J.D. Martinez that put a run on Kopech’s pitching line.
Kopech (1.69 ERA) finished with 41 pitches, 25 for strikes. He had thrown 33, 34, 26 and 33 pitches in his four relief outings, his longest lasting 2 1/3 innings.
In a three-run fourth, Yermin Mercedes belted his team-high fourth homer for a 2-0 lead, Danny Mendick blooped an RBI single to center to make it 3-0 and leadoff hitter Nick Madrigal doubled in Mendick to make it 4-1. Madrigal, batting .304, drove in the fifth run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Closer Liam Hendriks, who got the save in Game 1, pitched a perfect ninth in Game 2.
A 25-year-old man was fatally shot Saturday morning in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.
Verico Veal was riding in a vehicle about 2:45 a.m. in the 11800 block of South Marshfield Avenue when a male in a silver or white SUV fired shots, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Veal was struck in the chest, arm and hand and driven to Franciscan Health in Olympia Fields where he was pronounced dead, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
No one is in custody as Area Two detectives investigate.
Bail was denied Sunday for a convicted felon who was on house arrest when he and his brother allegedly shot and killed another man earlier this month in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.
Prosecutors alleged that Dixon and his brother were both armed with handguns when they chased Broach through the 12000 block of South Lowe, where Dixon lives. When Broach fell, prosecutors said the brothers stood over him and fired repeatedly as he lay in a “fetal position.”
Broach was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead, according to prosecutors and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Two witnesses identified the brothers from photo lineups and images taken from surveillance footage, prosecutors said. That video purportedly shows Broach’s killing and the events that took place before and after the shooting.
Dixon was on electronic home monitoring at the time as he awaited trial in a gun case filed last December. Prosecutors noted his GPS monitor also showed him near the scene, corroborating the video footage.
Dixon was still wearing the same clothing seen in the surveillance footage when he was arrested later that day on an unrelated escape charge, prosecutors said. His hands also tested positive for gunshot residue.
Dixon’s attorney, Nicholas Giordano, questioned how Dixon was identified as one of the gunmen and insisted there’s “no evidence” placing his client’s GPS tracker at the shooting scene.
Giordano claimed Dixon called the Cook County sheriff’s office before the shooting to report he needed to leave the area “because him and his family were being threatened.” Dixon’s home was then “firebombed” and rendered “unlivable,” according to Giordano, who said one of his client’s brothers was also killed in the area last year.
Dixon, who has an 8-year-old son and a 2-year-old stepdaughter, recently worked at a Dollar Tree store while taking classes to earn a commercial driver’s license, his attorney added.
Though Girodano pressed for a cash bond in the new case, Judge David Navarro sided with prosecutors and denied Dixon bail. Dixon was also held without bail in the pending gun case after violating the terms of his release.
Bret Bielema’s overarching message to his first Illinois football team can be summed up in two words:
Enough already.
Or, the more elucidated version:
Before you can win a game, you’ve got to stop losing it.
That means cutting down on momentum-busting turnovers. It means avoiding the sort of mental errors that good teams find unacceptable. It means keeping the refs’ yellow laundry tucked inside their waistbands where it belongs.
The Illini were 2-6 last season and 17-39 overall under Lovie Smith, who just couldn’t turn around a program that has often seemed to be un-turn-aroundable. Enter Bielema, who dreams big, talks big, expects a ton from his players and sometimes has really good ideas such as scheduling the team’s spring football game on a Monday night.
“The fact that we can be live on the Big Ten Network,” he said, “I think it’s got these guys jacked up.”
It’s Orange vs. Blue. It’s sixth-year senior Brandon Peters vs. sophomore Isaiah Williams in a coin-flip competition at quarterback. It’s another needed fresh start for the Illini. It’s a football game with fans in the stands.
“If you know your parents are going to be there, your family, your friends, you’re being watched on national TV, whatever it is, I think it’s going to bring you a little juice,” Bielema said. “I think we’ll see a good, active frenzy on Monday night.”
A frenzy? Love that word. Memorial Stadium hasn’t seen many football frenzies lately.
Here’s what’s happening:
MON 19
White Sox at Red Sox (10:10 a.m., NBCSCH)
Starters Lucas Giolito and Nathan Eovaldi have much in common, from Tommy John surgery to back-to-back Opening Day assignments to lively fastballs. One big difference: While Giolito evolves into an expert craftsman, Eovaldi blasts ahead with 100-plus heat.
The Bulls need a win, but the C’s are on a six-game winning streak during which Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have averaged a combined 61.5 points. What could go wrong?
The Hawks have played five games against Nashville and lost ’em all, yet somehow only two points separates the teams in the Central standings. Thanks, hockey math.
Illinois spring football game (7 p.m., BTN)
Because all the team’s starters will play on the Orange side, points will be doubled whenever the Blue side scores. Would it kill the Packers to extend the Bears that courtesy once in a while?
Albert Almora Jr. doesn’t look bad in his new uni.Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images
TUE 20
Mets at Cubs (6:40 p.m., ESPN, Marquee)
It’s a chance to see old friend Albert Almora Jr., though you might have to look into the visitors’ dugout to find him. The former No. 6 overall draft pick is playing even less with the Mets than he did with the Cubs.
Kansas City at Red Stars (7:30 p.m., Paramount+)
The Red Stars are 0-1-1 in Challenge Cup group play. Expansion team KC — back in the NWSL business for the first time since 2017 — is 0-1.
Think the pandemic has been hard on sports fans? One of four segments this episode examines how league shutdowns sparked rises in depression, anxiety and other mental-health disorders in athletes at all levels.
WED 21
White Sox at Indians (5:10 p.m., NBCSCH+)
Someone will have to step in and start in place of Lance Lynn, who’s on the 10-day injured list with a strained right trapezius. Sadly, Lynn’s future as a circus performer is also in jeopardy.
THU 22
Mets at Cubs (6:40 p.m., Marquee)
Likely Mets starter Jacob deGrom struck out nine straight batters in his last outing, already has a pair of 14-strikeout games and is sporting a miniscule 0.45 ERA. In other words, the Cubs have him right where they want him.
Hornets at Bulls (8 p.m., NBCSCH)
The Hornets are under .500 for the first time in a month and still without Gordon Hayward, who scored 34 points in the teams’ first meeting. In other words, they have the Bulls right where they want them.
Roman Josi puts a game-winner past Malcolm Subban.Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
FRI 23
Brewers at Cubs (1:20 p.m., Marquee)
Is it really the teams’ third series of the season already? You’d think by now they were sick and tired of the Edens Expressway commute.
Predators at Blackhawks (7 p.m., NBCSCH+)
By the end of this one, we’re going to have a much better sense of which team will snatch the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central. Unless the Hawks and Preds are still pretty much tied in the standings, which they probably will be.
SAT 24
Bulls at Heat (7 p.m., NBCSCH)
The most exciting five words in sports? Definitely “10-vs.-7 playoff matchup.” Not to freak everybody out, but this could be a preview of that.
Just saying, blowing an early 2-0 lead as the Fire did in their opener isn’t the greatest strategy for the season.
SUN 25
Rangers at White Sox (1:10 p.m., NBCSCH)
After this one, the Sox get to enjoy a nice day off. Hopefully, Yermin Mercedes won’t spend all of it sulking because his batting average is mired in the .400s.
Brewers at Cubs (1:20 p.m., Marquee)
Brandon Woodruff is lined up to start for the Brew Crew. Will he hit Willson Contreras again? Will he sneak into the Cubs’ bullpen between innings and fire a ball behind Ryan Tepera? Stay tuned, folks.
The man was struck in the chest and face and transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him as Jawon L. Ward, a resident of Englewood.
The woman, 44, was shot in the shoulder and back and was taken in good condition to the same hospital, police said.
On Saturday, a 25-year-old man was fatally shot in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.
Verico Veal was riding in a vehicle about 2:45 a.m. in the 11800 block of South Marshfield Avenue when a male in a silver or white SUV fired shots, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Veal was struck in the chest, arm and hand and driven to Franciscan Health in Olympia Fields where he was pronounced dead, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
In nonfatal attacks, a 17-year-old girl was shot early Sunday in Heart of Chicago on the Lower West Side.
Saturday night, a man was critically wounded in a shooting in Lawndale on the West Side.
Officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert about 10:30 p.m. and found the 34-year-old unresponsive in an alley in the 2700 block of West Flournoy Street with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, police said. He was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.
A 25-year-old man was shot Saturday in Fifth City on the West Side.
He was driving about 12:20 a.m. in the 300 block of South Kedzie Avenue when a male inside of a passing dark-colored Nissan Rogue fired shots, police said. The man was struck in the back and drove himself to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was listed in fair condition, police said.
About 20 minutes earlier, a 20-year-old man was injured in a shooting in Park Manor on the South Side.
The man was walking just after midnight in the 7100 block of South Michigan Avenue when he heard shots and felt pain, police said. He was struck in the hand and brought himself to Jackson Park Hospital where he was listed in good condition, police said.
At least seven other people were injured in shootings citywide so far this weekend.
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