Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Logan Square Monument holding signs demanding justice for 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in Little Village late last month.
“You have allowed police officers to traumatize us,” Mark Clements, a survivor of police violence, told the crowd.
“We are out here because we watched a child gunned down by the Chicago police. Where’s the integrity?” Clements said.
“I want this whole park to rock,” Clements shouted. “We’re showing Lori Lightfoot: No more. We showing the governor: No more. We showing Toni Preckwinkle: No more!”
Preckwinkle was at the event, but did not address the crowd.
Hundreds packed into Logan Square Park on Friday to protest the fatal shooting by Chicago police of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Many speakers became emotional, crying as they called for justice for Adam and others killed by police.
“Adam, we love you, we will not stop until there is justice for you!” The crowd shouted in unison.
From other speakers there also were demands for rent control, better jobs and funding for youth-driven social programs. To accomplish this, some organizers said, was to defund the Chicago Police Department and rerouting those funds to socials safety net.
After a 90-minute rally in the park, the crowd began marching north on Milwaukee Avenue, filling the road, waving signs and chanting. Some also protested the fatal shooting by police of Anthony Alvarez, 22, killed about two days after Adam.
People filled Milwaukee Avenue Friday night for a march to protest police violence. The march started in Logan Square Park, where thousands had gathered by a rally.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
“No justice, no peace, abolish the police!” some yelled, as diners in the popular business district looked on through restaurant windows.
“They killed a 13-year-old kid with his hands up,” said Nate Brandford, 20, a student at the University of Chicago. “They’ve been killing us for a while now, so I figured I’d come to yet another protest to scream yet another name.”
Andrea Popoca, 26, didn’t expect the protest to turn out to be as big as it did, but he was pleased at the turnout.
“We’re here to show our support for the community in this unjustified murder,” Popoca said holding a sign with Adam’s name on it. “That video was sickening and we were mortified when we saw it.”
Popoca said the video showed a “trigger happy” officer who needs to be fired and charged.
“This keeps happening and it simply needs to stop,” she added.
The march through Logan Square twisted and turned through the Northwest Side neighborhood as TV helicopters flew above, monitoring the protest. Police blocked intersections, allowing the peaceful demonstration to move around.
Manny Ramos is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.
Sam Kelly is a CST Wire reporter.
Hundreds packed into Logan Square Park on Friday to protest the fatal shooting by Chicago police of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
On the bright side, there was no need for all the focus to be on the Cubs’ ongoing inability to hit after a 5-2 loss to the Braves on a freaky Friday at Wrigley Field.
There were other matters of strange, terrible baseball to share the spotlight.
Such as David Bote getting thrown out at second base on a bad-idea, worse-execution steal attempt to end the sixth inning with the Cubs down 4-2 and the potential tying run at the plate.
Or Javy Baez winging it with a total head-scratcher of a bunt attempt — and fouling out to the catcher, as if there’s anything worse — with the leadoff man on base and no one out in a 5-2 game in the eighth.
“You’re looking at guys that are trying to do whatever they can to win a baseball game,” bench coach Andy Green — who filled in for suspended manager David Ross — said about the bunt.
But trying to win doesn’t explain Baez holding on to the ball at short and finally throwing late to home while Ronald Acuna Jr. scored from second on a ground ball in the fourth to make it 4-1.
Or starting pitcher Zach Davies (1-2) serving up a fourth-inning double to opposing starter Kyle Wright (1-0) — it was Wright’s first career hit — to key a three-run Braves rally. What happened to pitchers not being able to hit anymore? Davies can ask himself that as he ruminates on his 10.32 ERA.
“It was just a struggle all day,” he said.
But enough about all that. Whom are we kidding? Of course the focus should be on the Cubs’ catatonic bats. This is a team that totaled 59 hits in its first 12 games, a miniscule average of 4.9. The Cubs have been taking futility where few, if any, punchless teams have dared take it before.
Well, guess what? With six hits in the opener of a three-game series and a nine-game homestand, the Cubs bumped their hits per game to an even five. Please, fans, try to contain your excitement.
“It has been a grind,” said first baseman Anthony Rizzo, whose one-hit day (along with two walks) upped his average to .182. “It has not been fun to watch.”
Day after day, it’s pretty miserable to watch.
“We’ve just got to keep swinging and somehow relax a little bit and just keep playing baseball,” Rizzo said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
The Cubs were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, agonizing on a day when they drew six walks and had four batters hit by pitches. A tone was set in the first inning after the first two hitters, Ian Happ and Willson Contreras, reached and were moved to second and third by a Rizzo groundout. Kris Bryant struck out on three pitches and Joc Pederson flew out.
The Cubs stranded multiple runners in three of the first four innings. After a Contreras homer and a Rizzo walk in the fifth, any momentum died with the Cubs trailing 4-2 as Bryant again struck out on three pitches, Pederson lined out and Baez went down flailing at a slider buried at his shoe tops by lefty reliever Grant Dayton.
In the ninth, the Cubs loaded the bases for Pederson against southpaw Will Smith. Pederson signed with the Cubs because he wanted to play every day. Finding some left-vs.-left success is the key to the whole operation. So far, Pederson — who struck out to end the game — is 1-for-13 against lefties. Then again, he’s only 4-for-29 against righties.
As Rizzo pointed out, it’s a good thing the season is 162 games again and not 60 as it was in 2020.
Wait, is that a really good thing?
“This is part of being a big-leaguer,” Rizzo said. “You’re going to have ups and downs, and it’s how you carry yourself through these times that makes the good times sweeter.”
When describing the allegations against 21-year-old Ruben Roman — who was arrested at the scene of Adam’s shooting in Little Village — Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy told Judge Susana Ortiz that Toledo had a gun in his right hand a moment before he was shot by an officer.
“The officer tells [Adam] to drop it as [Adam] turns towards the officer. [Adam] has a gun in his right hand,” Murphy said, reading from the proffer on April 10. “The officer fires one shot at [Adam], striking him in the chest. The gun that [Adam] was holding landed against the fence a few feet away.”
The proffer matches a portion of what the video of the deadly March 29 shooting shows, but it doesn’t note that Adam dropped his weapon and had his hands up in the air less than a second before the officer fired the shot.
Chicago media outlets, including the Chicago Sun-Times, reported that Murphy was indicating that Adam had a gun in his hand when he was shot.
State’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Sarah Sinovic declined to comment Friday on why it took the office five days to say that Murphy did not “fully inform himself” before Ruben’s bond hearing.
“An attorney who works in this office failed to fully inform himself before speaking in court,” the statement issued Thursday said. “Errors like that cannot happen and this has been addressed with the individual involved. The video speaks for itself.”
The state’s attorney’s office does not believe Murphy lied or knowingly presented inaccurate information, Sinovic stressed Friday. But she said that the office is concerned that the information Murphy presented in court wasn’t clear.
Murphy “did not make it clear at what point [Adam] didn’t have the gun,” Sinovic said.
“Something was presented as fact when it was still under investigation.”
Sinovic wouldn’t say whether Murphy would face disciplinary action over that omission.
Murphy declined to comment Friday.
Before Ruben’s bond hearing, Murphy had not seen the security camera video that appears to show Adam tossing the gun behind a fence before he was shot, Sinovic said.
She declined to say if that footage was available to the state’s attorney’s office at the time of the hearing.
“It’s still under investigation what videos were available to [Murphy],” Sinovic said. “We’re still trying to figure out what he had access to when he made the the statements in court.”
Two sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Chicago Sun-Times that Murphy’s proffer had not been approved or read by anyone else in the state’s attorney’s office before it was presented before a judge.
Sinovic would not discuss the office’s policy’s on the approval process of proffers but said the office is investigating whether Murphy’s superiors signed off on the proffer.
Ruben is charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon, child endangerment and violating probation.
LOS ANGELES — President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and a slew of celebrities including Billy Crystal, Jennifer Hudson and Lin-Manuel Miranda are part of a special aimed at boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates.
“Roll Up Your Sleeves,” airing at 6 p.m. Sunday on NBC, will feature Matthew McConaughey interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci to help separate “fact from fiction” about the vaccines, the network said.
Biden will make a direct appeal in support of the effort, while Obama will be joined by basketball greats Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to reinforce the role of vaccines in allowing Americans to get their lives back on track.
Former first lady Michelle Obama will team with Miranda, Faith Hill and Jennifer Lopez in support of shots during the hour-long special hosted by spouses Russell Wilson, the NFL quarterback, and actor-singer Ciara.
Other announced highlights include comedy from Billy Crystal and Wanda Sykes and appearances by TV doctors Eric Dane, Ryan Eggold, Ellen Pompeo, Jane Seymour and Ken Jeong, who’s also a real M.D.
Also set to appear are Sterling K. Brown, Lana Condor, Jennifer Hudson, Dale Jarrett, Joe Jonas, Eva Longoria, Demi Lovato, Joel McHale, Kumail Nanjiani and Amanda Seyfried.
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
Three other city efforts are at a full stop for now, including the O’Hare Airport vaccination site for transportation workers and a series of Illinois Restaurant Association events. The city’s “vaccination bus” is out of service, too.
COVID-19 infections have been on the rise for the past month even while the vaccine effort picks up momentum — but officials have expressed optimism the state might be flattening its latest curve.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,866 more cases were diagnosed among the latest 93,602 tests, keeping the state’s seven-day average positivity rate at 4.2% — twice as high as it was in mid-March, but the fourth straight day it’s fallen or held steady.
Hospitals took on an additional 15 COVID-19 patients with 2,058 beds occupied Thursday night. That’s nearly a thousand more coronavirus patients than were admitted March 12.
The state also reported 21 more deaths, including that of a Cook County man in his 40s, raising Illinois’ pandemic toll to 21,630.
Nearly 1.3 million residents have contracted the virus over the past year, compared to about 3.2 million who are now fully vaccinated.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady have urged residents to get shots wherever they can find them. Thousands of appointments are available through the weekend and into next week at a federally run vaccination site in Gary, Indiana, which is open to Illinois residents.
For help finding a vaccine appointment in-state, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by day
Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times
A body is taken on Friday from the scene where multiple people were shot at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis. A gunman killed several people and wounded others before taking his own life in a late-night attack at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis airport, police said. | Michael Conroy/AP
Some 20% of guns retrieved at Illinois crime scenes come from Indiana. But many of our neighbors to the east don’t especially care.
After a rifle-bearing gunman killed eight people and injured others at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis late Thursday, Indiana Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun tweeted that the victims’ loved ones and co-workers “will be dealing with this tragedy for a long time to come.”
Notice who Braun didn’t say will be dealing with it: Congress.
Or even the Indiana state legislature.
That all too common attitude — “nothing for us to do here, folks” — helps explain why the United States has far and away the greatest number of gun deaths among all wealthy nations. We witness horror after horror — Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the Pulse nightclub, Virginia Tech and daily shootings on our streets — and little or nothing happens.
The FedEx calamity was at least the third mass shooting in Indianapolis just this year. It followed a recent string of mass shootings across the United States, including eight people fatally shot last month at massage businesses in the Atlanta area and 10 at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. The United States lurches from one tragedy of gun violence to another.
Yet too many elected officials refuse to consider smarter laws that could reduce gun violence.
Braun, who calls himself “100% pro-2nd Amendment,” should be working day and night to reduce gun violence. But like so many other elected officials, he isn’t. It’s a sign of America’s out-of-control gun culture.
That attitude doesn’t play well in Chicago, where guns easily obtained under Indiana’s lax gun laws are constantly brought to Chicago and used in crimes. Some 20% of guns retrieved at Illinois crime scenes come from Indiana. But many of our neighbors to the east don’t especially care.
“Other than representatives who come out of the northwest part of Indiana, I think they tend to take the attitude it is Chicago’s problem, not ours,” said Paul Hanson, vice president of Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence.
Instead of addressing gun violence, Indiana lawmakers recently pushed a bill to revoke that state’s law that requires a permit to carry a weapon, either openly or concealed. That effort appears to be dead for now, but gun safety advocates expect similar efforts in the future.
Such tolerance for gun trafficking is a problem for Illinois, Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention PAC, said on Friday. “Everything they do to weaken their laws makes it worse for us because the guns come across the border.”
On Friday, FedEx said the shooter at its facility was a former employee. Police identified him as Brandon Scott Hole, 19. When he arrived at the facility, he started shooting quickly in the parking lot without any confrontation beforehand. He apparently shot himself after entering the building, police said. His mother reportedly had warned authorities of his potential for violence, and police had confiscated a gun from him last year.
We hear such stories too often after victims have died or been injured. Congress and the states should be working overtime to find ways to protect people from gun violence.
In Illinois, for example, there are no background checks on person-to person firearms sales and transfers. The seller is required to check that the buyer has a Firearms Owners Identification card, but the seller doesn’t have to ensure the FOID card is valid or run a background check. Legislators should pass the Block Illegal Ownership legislation in the state House and Senate to close that loophole and others.
On the federal level, the Senate should approve three bills tightening background checks that have passed the House. The bills would expand background checks on individuals seeking to purchase or transfer firearms and close the so-called Charleston loophole, which allows gun sales to proceed without a completed background check if three business days have passed.
And all that should just be a start.
President Joe Biden was right when he said, “Gun violence is an epidemic in America. But we should not accept it. We must act.”
Rachel Guglielmo, a volunteer with the Indiana chapter of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, says the biggest challenge is that too many people don’t pay attention.
To enact the laws we need, “there is no way other than citizen engagement and activism,” she said.
That’s a message we all need to heed. For too long, gun groups have been the most vocal. It’s time for the rest of us to speak up.
Coronavirus vaccinations will resume next week at Loretto Hospital in city-run clinic, the Chicago Department of Public Health announced Friday.
The new vaccination site will be focused on serving residents of the hospital’s Austin community, according to a health department news release.
On March 18, the health department had halted the delivery of vaccines to Loretto, 645 S. Central Ave., after reports surfaced that the hospital had vaccinated 72 ineligible workers at Trump International Hotel & Tower.
4:30 p.m. More than twice as many Illinoisans vaccinated than infected with COVID-19, as city prepares to expand eligibility
Public health officials on Friday announced Illinois’ second-most productive COVID-19 vaccination day yet with 166,885 doses going into arms statewide.
Nearly a quarter of all Illinoisans are now fully immunized against the coronavirus after Thursday’s shot effort, which came a week after the state set a record with almost 176,000 administered doses.
Illinois is now averaging about 130,000 shots per day as Chicago vaccine providers prepare to expand eligibility to all residents 16 and older starting Monday.
A federal pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means there won’t be as many appointments available as officials might have thought a week ago, but the state has downplayed that obstacle. J&J doses only account for about 8% of Illinois’ vaccine supply.
Most appointments at city-run sites will go ahead as scheduled next week after shuffling around some doses, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Mass vax sites at the United Center and Chicago State University will use Pfizer doses instead of J&J, as will the off-site Walgreens clinics that are scheduled to distribute doses at houses of worship this weekend, officials said Friday. The city’s program for homebound residents has switched to Pfizer, too.
3:45 p.m. Michigan’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 outbreak is starting to affect automotive production
DETROIT — Michigan’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 outbreak is beginning to slow auto production, with a major Ram pickup truck plant reducing its output because of a high number of absent workers.
About 10% of the production work force at the Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) assembly plant in Sterling Heights, north of Detroit, either tested positive or is on quarantine, a person who has been briefed on the situation said Friday. That is equivalent to about 600 workers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because neither the company nor the United Auto Workers union is releasing details.
The 5-million-square-foot plant has about 7,450 hourly workers, but not all of them are on the assembly lines. To try to stem the shortfall, the company has pulled workers from a pickup factory in nearby Warren, Michigan, that has been forced to shut down by the global shortage of semiconductors
2:50 p.m. How to politely ask whether someone has gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
Have the people you know and might be around been vaccinated? Many of us aren’t quite sure how to ask.
It’s a seemingly simple question whether you’re asking before going on a date with someone new or planning a long-awaited hangout with friends. But it can feel uncomfortable to ask.
Partly that’s because of polarizing opinions the pandemic has prompted.
“Not everyone places the same value on being vaccinated,” says Lynn F. Bufka, the American Psychological Association’s senior director of practice transformation and quality. “There are people who are quite clear that they do not want to be vaccinated.”
1:05 p.m. Bulls’ Zach LaVine expected to miss several games in coronavirus protocol
Coby White appears to be lost in his bench role.
Lauri Markkanen looks like he already signed elsewhere.
Patrick Williams seems to have gone headfirst into the rookie wall.
Factor in two embarrassing losses in less than a week to the last-place Timberwolves and the tanking Magic, and, well, there’s seemingly no way things could get worse for the Bulls.
Then Thursday hit.
A noon practice was quickly cancelled after Zach LaVine entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol with a positive coronavirus test, according to a source.
The hope is LaVine only will be out a handful of days, but with the Bulls scheduled to play five games in the next seven days and with only 18 games left in the regular season, that could be the difference between holding on to the final play-in spot or sitting in a lottery position and praying for lottery luck.
12:15 p.m. US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday.
White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments to ramp up coronavirus gene-mapping; the creation of six “centers of excellence” partnerships with universities to conduct research and develop technologies for gene-based surveillance of pathogens; and building a data system to better share and analyze information on emerging disease threats, so knowledge can be turned into action.
“Even as we accelerate our efforts to get shots into arms, more dangerous variants are growing, causing increases in cases in people without immunity,” White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. That “requires us to intensify our efforts to quickly test for and find the genetic sequence of the virus as it spreads.”
10:45 a.m. After contracting COVID-19, ex-Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orvie Cochran gets early prison release
After Outlaws Motorcycle Club boss Orville “Orvie” Cochran survived a shooting outside the biker gang’s South Side clubhouse in 2000 — he slipped on some ice and fell, thus avoiding a hail of bullets — a former friend described him as “- – – damn lucky.”
Cochran’s luck still hasn’t run out.
Arrested in 2017 after being on the run for 16 years to avoid racketeering charges, he caught a break on his sentence. And now — after contracting the coronavirus in prison — Cochran has gotten a federal judge to free him from prison six months early.
The judge ordered a “compassionate” release for Cochran, who had asked for that even before getting infected because, he said, he was afraid he would and had health problems that could make COVID especially dangerous for him.
9 a.m. What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will you need one?
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?
“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.
The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.
In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.
8:30 a.m. Pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect United Center appointments, city’s top doc says
Appointments at the United Center’s COVID-19 mass vaccination site will go on as scheduled next week with Pfizer doses being administered instead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s been shelved nationwide, officials said Thursday.
The city’s most prominent mass vax site has been doling out Pfizer since it launched a month ago in a parking lot across the street from the Near West Side arena.
That’ll still be the case Monday, which is when the federally run site had been scheduled to switch to J&J doses — until a handful of extremely rare blood clots tied to that vaccine prompted a temporary suspension this week while experts investigate.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide additional Pfizer doses in its place, meaning plans won’t change for anyone with a United Center appointment, according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
“Everybody who has an appointment from Monday on at the United Center can keep that appointment. You do not need to do a thing. You will just receive Pfizer instead of Johnson & Johnson,” Arwady said during an online Q&A.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,581 new cases of the disease were diagnosed Wednesday among 105,661 tests to keep the state’s average testing positivity rate at 4.2%.
About one quarter of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated so far, with 138,538 doses administered Tuesday. The state also reported 3,536 new cases and 31 more deaths.
Staff member of state House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch tests positive for COVID-19. The staff member was tested Monday as part of the Legislature’s required protocols to return to in-person work in the Capitol.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office promising to stop the “epidemic of gun violence that devastates families, shatters communities, holds children hostage to fear in their own homes” and leaves their parents wondering “if Chicago is a place where they can continue to live and raise their children.” Yet she hits the midway point of her term with violence in the city far worse than when she came to City Hall. | AP
The mayor is nearing the midpoint of her four-year term with crime and violence in Chicago far worse than when she walked in.
Twice targeted by devastating rounds of looting, the city already was bracing for protests tied to a verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial in Minnesota in the killing of George Floyd and the fallout from the police shooting in suburban Minneapolis of Daunte Wright.
The timing is no better for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, now a month away from the midpoint of her four-year term.
The shooting of a 13-year-old in a Little Village alley in the early hours of March 29 after a foot chase — the sort of chase the mayor wants to rein in — has shined an unflattering spotlight on what was supposed to be Lightfoot’s greatest strengths but instead have turned out to be her greatest shortcomings: police reform and public safety.
“We haven’t even reached the two-year mark,” said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), chairman of the Chicago City Council’s Socialist Caucus. “And already we have the tragic shooting of a child by a police officer. And we have a cover-up of police misconduct in the case of Anjanette Young.
“Voters may, in fact, feel betrayed or feel like they were let down,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “Many of them voted for Lightfoot believing she was going to right the ship at CPD.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) said that what he saw on the video was a police officer shooting and killing a 13-year-old boy who “stopped and put his hands up when the officer told him to. … A boy whose body was fully open and vulnerable to a police officer’s weapon. What we saw is exactly what happens when police officers are taught that their lives matter more than anyone’s else’s.
“Our system protects the broken notion that Black and Brown children are disposable,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Now is the time to tear down that racist, violent system and fix our city. The mayor doesn’t have any more chances. Our city can’t afford to lose another life.”
Lightfoot made her political bones on the issues of police reform and public safety. She’s a former Chicago Police Board president who co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability amid the furor that followed the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel was ordered to release the video of convicted Officer Jason Van Dyke — later convicted of murder — shooting McDonald 16 times after Emanuel was accused of concealing the video until he was safely re-elected to his second and final term.
Lightfoot personally drafted the policy that requires the city to release body-camera and dashcam video of police shootings and other incidents involving cop shootings within 60 days.
She promised during her inaugural address to stop the “epidemic of gun violence that devastates families, shatters communities, holds children hostage to fear in their own homes” and leaves their parents wondering “if Chicago is a place where they can continue to live and raise their children.”
Yet she hits the midway point with crime and violence far worse than when she walked in.
In March, shootings were up by 70% over the same period a year ago. Homicides were up 50%. The number of carjackings more than doubled.
Her handpicked police superintendent, David Brown, a retired Dallas police chief, seems overwhelmed by the Chicago job as his officers continue to be shot at in record numbers.
Lightfoot also has fallen short on the companion issues of police reform and accountability.
Her administration has been slow to comply with a federal consent decree.
She has failed to deliver the civilian oversight panel she promised in the first 100 days of her administration because of a dispute over the powers she vowed to give them: to hire and fire the police superintendent and be the final arbiter on disputes over police policy.
Lightfoot also has come under fire for changing her story about what she knew and when she knew it regarding the botched raid on the home of Anjanette Young, an innocent woman forced to stand naked, crying and pleading as an all-male team of Chicago cops raided the wrong home.
The mayor initially said she knew nothing about the raid until Channel 2 aired the shocking body-cam video in December.
But the mayor’s own emails revealed she was informed of a “very bad” raid on Young’s home in November 2019 and that she was so alarmed that she asked for a meeting with top aides to discuss it that same day.
Lightfoot admitted there is “a lot trust in me that’s been breached” by her handling of the raid on Young’s home and vowed to “win back the trust that we have lost.”
She has a long way to go.
Pat Nabong / Sun-TimesAld. Byron Sigcho-Lopez: “Our system protects the broken notion that Black and Brown children are disposable.”
“We see the case of Anjanette Young, Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Now, we see Adam Toledo. We are told, time after time, that we need to wait for police accountability. We have a bill right now that has the votes in the council, empowering communities for public safety. It is the bill that we need. The mayor does not have any excuses to delay this vote.”
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) is the prime mover behind a sweeping search-warrant reform that Young has embraced. Hadden has promised to forge ahead with her own ordinance, arguing that it’s stronger in “17 different ways” than reforms outlined in an executive order unveiled by Lightfoot and Brown.
“The mayor has lost some credibility on this issue,” Hadden has said. “So why would people trust her executive order?”
Lightfoot has said she “wears the jacket” for Chicago violence, facing the blame, and that she’s not about to “outsource” control of the Chicago Police Department to a civilian oversight commission.
But those words ring hollow to many at a time violence seems out of control and, in some neighborhoods, people are so fearful of being carjacked that they’re patrolling gas stations to allow female drivers to fill up without fear.
Pat Nabong / Sun-TimesAld. Chris Taliaferro on the quick release of video from the police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo: “This is an examploe the system working.”
Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) — the former Chicago police officer who is Lightfoot’s Committee on Public Safety chairman — said the political fallout for the mayor from the Toledo shooting video will be minimal if there even is any fallout.
According to Taliaferro, Lightfoot’s decision to pressure the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability to reverse its policy on withholding shooting videos involving juveniles and instead release the video in record time shows how much things have changed since the uproar over withholding the Laquan McDonald shooting video footage.
“This is an example of the system working,” he said. “Complete accountability. The investigation is occurring. Complete transparency. Videos are being shown only days after the shooting occurred after the family has had an opportunity to view it.
“Reform of our police department and reform of our ability to get these videos out sooner — it’s worked,” Taliaferro said. “I don’t think there’s any fallout because what the mayor has promised the public she actually came through on.”
What about the mayor’s promise of a safer city and swifter compliance with the consent decree?
“Some things are in her control,” Taliaferro said, “and some are not.
“Our department has implemented quite a few reforms in accordance with the consent decree. Have they kept up with the pace that’s been agreed upon by the monitor and the attorney general’s office? No. But they have made some great strides toward that.”
Hours before the video showing Adam Toledo being shot was released, an emotional Lightfoot tried to minimize any political fallout. She said the police department was prepared for the worst and would not be caught off-guard again. She acknowledged that Chicago “failed” the 13-year-old and vowed to use his death at the hands of police as a catalyst to provide constructive alternatives for teenagers like him.
Tyler LaRiviere / Sun-TimesLittle Village residents Victoria Ramon-Fox (left) and Haley Scott light a candle at a memorial for Adam Toledo on Friday in the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue.
And she promised yet again to reform a police department foot-chase policy that “put everyone at risk: the officers, the person being pursued and bystanders.”
Taliaferro urged the mayor to be careful how far she goes to rein in those chases “at a time when crime is very high.
“If police can’t pursue on foot a fleeing offender, then are we sending a signal to our offenders that they won’t get caught because nobody’s gonna chase behind me?” the alderman said. “That may be sending the wrong message to anybody that’s going to commit a crime or even thinking about committing a crime. It may possibly give them the inclination to go ahead and commit that crime because I know the police won’t chase.”
Taliaferro said police reform is needed, and so are policy changes. But he said it needs to be done in a way that protects Chicago residents and the police officers who serve and protect them.
“If we implement policies that will serve to hurt our residents by police not being able to apprehend an offender because of the lack of a foot chase, then we may be in trouble,” he said. “Our crime rates may skyrocket.”
Deputy Chief Craig McCartt of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department address the media with an update near the crime scene of the FedEx Ground facility on April 16, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. | Getty
Police Chief Randal Taylor noted that a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community, and the Sikh Coalition later issued a statement saying it was “sad to confirm” that at least four of those killed were community members.
INDIANAPOLIS — The former employee who shot and killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was interviewed by FBI agents last year, after his mother called police to say that her son might commit “suicide by cop,” the bureau said Friday.
Coroners began the slow process of identifying the victims as family members spent hours agonizing over word of their loved ones. The slayings Thursday night marked the latest in a string of recent mass shootings to rock the U.S.
The shooter was identified as Brandon Scott Hole of Indianapolis, Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt told a news conference. Investigators searched a home in Indianapolis associated with Hole and seized evidence, including desktop computers and other electronic media, McCartt said. The home is located in a neighborhood of midcentury houses near Interstate 465.
Hole began firing randomly at people in the parking lot of the FedEx facility late Thursday, killing four, before entering the building, fatally shooting four more people and then turning the gun on himself, McCartt said. He said the shooter apparently killed himself shortly before police entered the building. He said he did not know if Hole owned the gun legally.
“There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” he said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.”
McCartt said the slayings took place in a matter of minutes, and that there were at least 100 people in the facility at the time. Many were changing shifts or were on their dinner break, he said. Several people were wounded, including five who were taken to the hospital.
A FedEx employee said he was working inside the building Thursday night when he heard several gunshots in rapid succession.
“I see a man come out with a rifle in his hand and he starts firing and he starts yelling stuff that I could not understand,” Levi Miller told WTHR-TV. “What I ended up doing was ducking down to make sure he did not see me because I thought he would see me and he would shoot me.”
Paul Keenan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, said Friday that agents questioned Hole last year after his mother called police to say that her son might commit “suicide by cop.” He said the FBI was called after items were found in Hole’s bedroom but he did not elaborate on what they were. He said agents found no evidence of a crime and that they did not identify Hole as espousing a racially motivated ideology. A police report obtained by The Associated Press shows that officers seized a pump-action shotgun from Hole’s home after responding to the mother’s call.
McCartt said Hole was a former employee of FedEx and last worked for the company in 2020. The deputy police chief said he did not know why Hole left the job or if he had ties to the workers in the facility. He said police have not yet uncovered a motive for the shooting.
Police Chief Randal Taylor noted that a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community, and the Sikh Coalition later issued a statement saying it was “sad to confirm” that at least four of those killed were community members.
The coalition, which identifies itself as the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S., said in the statement that it expected authorities to “conduct a full investigation — including the possibility of bias as a factor.”
The agonizing wait by the workers’ families was exacerbated by the fact that most employees aren’t allowed to carry cellphones inside the FedEx building, making contact with them difficult.
“When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are … what are you supposed to do?” Mindy Carson said early Friday, fighting back tears.
Carson later said she had heard from her daughter Jessica, who works in the facility, and that she was OK.
FedEx said in a statement that cellphone access is limited to a small number of workers in the dock and package sorting areas to “support safety protocols and minimize potential distractions.”
FedEx Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick Smith called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
“This is a devastating day, and words are hard to describe the emotions we all feel,” he wrote in an email to employees.
The killings marked the latest in a string of recent mass shootings across the country and the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in the city in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during at argument at a home in March. In other states last month, eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses in the Atlanta area, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the community must guard against resignation and “the assumption that this is simply how it must be and we might as well get used to it.”
President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting and called gun violence “an epidemic” in the U.S.
“Too many Americans are dying every single day from gun violence. It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation,” he said in a statement. Later, he tweeted, “We can, and must, do more to reduce gun violence and save lives.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was “horrified and heartbroken” by the shooting and called for congressional action on gun control.
“As we pray for the families of all affected, we must work urgently to enact commonsense gun violence prevention laws to save lives & prevent this suffering,” the Democratic leader said in a tweet.
Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until April 20.
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Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report. Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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