Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny with a high near 81 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 58 degrees. Tomorrow will be partly sunny, with a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, and a high near 76 degrees.

Top story

2-year-old critically wounded in road-rage shooting on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park

A 2-year-old boy was shot in the head during an apparent road-rage incident late this morning on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.

The boy was at Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said.

A dispute over one car not letting another car into a lane of traffic about 11 a.m. on northbound Lake Shore Drive just south of Soldier Field apparently led to the shooting, Chicago Police Cmdr. Jake Alderden said at a news conference this afternoon.

Both cars continued north and shooting began on Lake Shore Drive just west of the Shedd Aquarium. Bullet casings were recovered over a two-block stretch as the cars proceeded north, he said.

The vehicle the 2-year-old was in crashed at Monroe Street and Lake Shore Drive, near the Chicago Yacht Club and Maggie Daley Park.

A good Samaritan in a passing Tesla saw the crashed car and drove the boy and a male and female occupant to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The boy, who was shot in the temple, was later transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital, police said.

A handgun was recovered from an occupant of the crashed vehicle, though police couldn’t immediately say if it was used in the shooting or if it was possessed legally.

Alderden expected information about the other car involved in the shooting, which fled the scene, to be released soon.

Read the full story from David Struett, Sam Kelly and Mitch Dudek here.

More news you need

1. Seven people were wounded during a fight that escalated into a shootout last night in Englewood. Multiple shooters exchanged gunfire, but no one has been arrested, police said.
2. A steady, monthlong surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations took its latest troubling step up in Illinois today as officials reported 2,931 new cases of the virus, and positivity rates soared to levels not seen in months. The latest infections were diagnosed among 51,625 tests, meaning 5.7% of samples came back positive.
3. Four years after the Illinois race for governor broke national records for self-financing candidates, next year’s contest is shaping up to be another duel of the deep pockets. Millionaire businessman Gary Rabine has donated enough of his own cash to his campaign to lift all fundraising caps on the race.
4. Citing her husband’s health and unfinished business in her current position, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough said she will not run for Illinois secretary of state and will instead throw her support behind Ald. Pat Dowell. “I’m going to run for re-election,” Yarbrough said. “I haven’t finished the work I’ve started with in the office.”
5. A five-month jury trial suspension ended this week in federal court, clearing the way for judges to slowly begin clearing a backlog of cases that has built up in the year since the coronavirus pandemic took hold. But safety protocols mean the work could be slow going.
6. Metra is adding service on three lines beginning Monday to accommodate increased ridership as more people return to the city for work and for pleasure. Trains will be added the BNSF, Milwaukee District North and North Central Service lines.

A bright one

There’s a shot! Mass vaccination site opens next to Wrigley Field

Want to catch the Cubs and do your part to try to avoid catching — or spreading — COVID-19?

Beginning this week, eligible Chicagoans can head to Wrigleyville to get vaccinated. The American Airlines Conference Center at Gallagher Way, next to Wrigley Field, is one of two new mass vaccination sites opening in the city; the other is at Chicago State University.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

The North Side facility is expected to offer up to 2,000 shots daily, according to the mayor’s office. Chicago State is expected to offer up to 1,200 walk-up and 1,000 drive-thru vaccination appointments daily. Shots at either site are available by appointment only. To register, go to zocdoc.com/vaccine.

As vaccinations kicked off yesterday at the North Side site, organizers there said they hoped the proximity to good public transportation and Wrigley Field itself would encourage people to come get vaccinated — particularly young adults, who, it is believed, are fueling the current surge in cases in the city.

Read Stefano Esposito’s full story here.

From the press box

As much as Porter Moser loved coaching at Loyola, Joe Hendrickson explains why the popular former Ramblers coach could not pass up Oklahoma’s offer.

The new Loyola coach, Drew Valentine, got a high recommendation this morning from his brother, Bulls guard Denzel Valentine.

And the New York Jets traded quarterback Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers for three NFL Draft picks. Patrick Finley explains how that move could affect the Bears.

Your daily question ?

Have you gotten your COVID-19 shot yet? If so, what’s changed for you since getting vaccinated?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s your favorite place to get deep dish in Chicago? Here’s what some of you said…

“I love Lou Malnati’s with its wonderful Plum Tomato Sauce and Corn Meal crust. The best I ever had was a supreme pizza one afternoon at Pizzeria Uno. I could still taste it days later, it was that good.” — Mark Farina

“Pequod’s because of how the cheese chars on the sides. Giordano’s meat and more meat is also a solid deep dish pizza.” — Chris Goebel

“In the ’60s it was Gulliver’s on Howard. Their onion soup was good too. Now it’s Giordano’s because I’m old and they are close to home. Lou’s in Elk Grove Village was it in the ’70s.” — Lisa Urquhart

“Palermo’s on 63rd is the very best.” — Liam Whitney

“Connies on Archer is # 1 for me.” — Robert Braun

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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A 16-year-old boy was killed and a man was wounded in a shooting Tuesday in South Shore, according to police.

Someone in a vehicle pulled up and fired shots at the pair about 2:10 p.m. as they stood outside in the 7800 block of South Escanaba Avenue, Chicago police said.

The boy was struck in the back and head, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A 25-year-old man was shot in the arm but refused medical attention, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not identified the boy.

Area Two detectives are investigating.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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MEDORA, N.D. — Firefighters are making headway against a blaze in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

The fire in the park’s North Unit tripled in size on Sunday, threatening park staff housing, maintenance buildings and the CCC Campground. North Dakota Forest Service Acting Outreach and Education Manager Beth Hill said Tuesday that the blaze is 45% contained.

But she said the fire has consumed about 5,000 acres, or nearly eight square miles. The campground, other infrastructure and some private homes on the fire’s north end remain at risk.

Federal forestry officials have closed more areas in the park, including the CCC Campground, Summit Campground, several trails and the Summit Overlook, Beth said.

They also have issued emergency restrictions on fires and shooting in all national forest lands in a host of North Dakota counties since conditions are ripe for fires.

Wildfires have burned more than 47 square miles in North Dakota this spring. Fewer than 15.6 square miles burned all of last year.

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Chicago Bears: John Elway, Teddy Bridgewater could help QB situation by Ryan Heckman

Veteran starting pitcher Trevor Williams made his season debut for the Chicago Cubs on Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field. Williams was brilliant on Monday as he carried a perfect game into sixth gaming as his dad and two brothers looked on from the stands. Williams finished the night by giving up two runs on two hits in six innings of work while earning his first win of the season.

Williams was an under-the-radar signing for the Cubs this off-season. Under the radar in the sense that the veteran starting pitcher struggled during his past two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Williams posted a 6.18 ERA (6.30 FIP) in 11 appearances during the 2020 season and a 5.38 ERA (5.12 FIP) in 26 appearances during the 2019 season.

Needless to say, the Cubs did not sign Williams with the full knowledge that he would be a factor in the team’s starting rotation at the beginning of the 2021 season. What the Cubs were hoping is that they can get Williams into their pitching lab and work with pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to re-discover the success that he had during the 2018 season.

During the 2018 season with the Pirates, Williams posted a 3.11 ERA (3.86 FIP) while starting 31 games. A large part of the reason for Williams’ success during the 2018 season was due to the fact that he had a plus slider with effective movement on his sinking fastball.

So, then the question becomes what was the difference for Williams in 2018 compared to 2019/2020? The difference is that Williams suffered an injury in between those seasons and his mechanics never quite returned to form. The Cubs and Williams noticed a mechanical flaw in Williams’ delivery that resulted in his throwing arm coming too far across his body.

Jordan Bastian broke down this discovery in his piece for MLB.com:

Mechanically, Hottovy said Williams — who has a rare combination of a low release point and great extension — was pulling toward first base on his follow through, impacting his release point. The Cubs have been working with the righty on a more direct line to the plate.

“When he’s moving right,” Hottovy explained, “and does all the things right up the chain, over the rubber, that front side kind of gets to home plate and then works back to him, versus gets to home plate, gets kind of pulled toward first base. Directionally, he’s in a much better place.”

The initial result was a success for Williams as he shut down the Brewers’ offense on Monday night. Looking beyond his corrected delivery, Williams effectively used his slider and sinking fastball to thwart the timing of the Brewers’ hitters.

Related Story: Three young Cubs to really watch this season

Entering the season, the Cubs starting rotation was a question mark for the team. Mainly due to the questions of success, if any, that would come from the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation. Williams proved on Monday night that he could be a hidden gem for the Cubs this season and if that proves to be true, the trajectory of the Chicago Cubs season could change dramatically.

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Lt. Johnny Mercil became the latest member of the Minneapolis force to take the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to dismantle the argument that Chauvin was doing what he was trained to do when he put his knee on George Floyd’s neck last May.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis police are taught to restrain combative suspects with a knee on their back or shoulders if necessary but are told to “stay away from the neck when possible,” a department use-of-force instructor testified Tuesday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

Lt. Johnny Mercil became the latest member of the Minneapolis force to take the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to dismantle the argument that Chauvin was doing what he was trained to do when he put his knee on George Floyd’s neck last May.

Several experienced officers, including the police chief himself, have testified that Floyd should not have been kept pinned to the pavement by his neck for close to 9 1/2 minutes by prosecutors’ reckoning as the Black man lay face-down, his hands cuffed behind his back.

According to testimony and records submitted Tuesday, Chauvin took a 40-hour course in 2016 on how to recognize people in crisis — including those suffering mental problems or the effects of drug use — and how to use de-escalation techniques to calm them down.

Sgt. Ker Yang, the Minneapolis police official in charge of crisis-intervention training, said officers are taught to “slow things down and re-evaluate and reassess.”

Records show Chauvin also underwent training in the use of force in 2018. Mercil said those who attended were taught that the sanctity of life is a cornerstone of the department’s use-of-force policy and that officers must use the least amount of force required to get a suspect to comply.

Under cross-examination by Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson, Mercil testified that officers are trained to use their knee across a person’s back or shoulder and employ their body weight to maintain control. But Mercil added: “We tell officers to stay away from the neck when possible.”

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 suggested that Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions are what killed him, not Chauvin’s knee.

In fact, Nelson sought to point out moments in the video footage when he said Chauvin’s knee did not appear to be on Floyd’s neck.

Nelson showed Mercil several images taken from officers’ body-camera videos, asking after each one whether it showed Chauvin’s knee appearing to rest more on Floyd’s back, shoulder or shoulder blades than directly on Floyd’s neck. Mercil often agreed.

Nelson acknowledged the images were difficult to make out. They were taken at different moments during Floyd’s arrest, starting about four minutes after he was first pinned to the ground, according to time stamps on the images

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. Floyd, 46, was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd, who had taken drugs, frantically struggled with officers who tried to put him in their squad car, saying he was claustrophobic.

Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him sparked protests around the U.S. that descended into violence in some cases.

Mercil testified that in his experience, it takes less than 10 seconds for someone to be rendered unconscious with a neck restraint. He said someone having a rush of adrenaline or a higher breathing or heart rate can be affected even faster.

Prosecutor Steve Schleicher asked Mercil if any additional body weight on the neck or back would make it more difficult for someone to breathe if the person were handcuffed behind the back and lying face-down. Mercil said yes.

“Have you have ever had a circumstance where an individual has lost their pulse and suddenly come back to life and become more violent?” Schleicher asked, suggesting that Floyd was held down long past the point where he might be a threat.

“Not that I’m aware of, sir,” Mercil replied.

Instead of protecting a fellow officer in what is sometimes called the “blue wall of silence,” some of the most experienced members of the Minneapolis force – including the head of the homicide division — have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd.

Webber reported from Fenton, Mich.

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Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a petty officer third class assigned to Fort Detrick, began shooting with a rifle inside a Navy-related business at the Riverside Tech Park, causing people inside to flee, Frederick police and Fort Detrick officials said.

FREDERICK, Md. — A Navy medic shot and critically wounded two U.S. Navy sailors at a Maryland business park Tuesday, then fled to a nearby Army base where he was shot and killed, police and U.S. Navy officials said.

Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a petty officer third class assigned to Fort Detrick, began shooting with a rifle inside a Navy-related business at the Riverside Tech Park, causing people inside to flee, Frederick police and Fort Detrick officials said at a news conference. Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando said detectives are still trying to determine a possible motive.

Brigadier General Michael J. Talley said Woldesenbet drove to the base after the initial shooting at the office park and sped past the gate before he could be searched. Talley said he made it about a half-mile into the installation before he was stopped at a parking lot. He then brandished his weapon at officers from the installation’s police force who had pursued him.

Talley said investigators are looking at whether the shooter knew the victims, but refused to speculate, saying, “We don’t want to compromise any aspect of the investigation.”

Fort Detrick is home to the military’s flagship biological defense laboratory and several federal civilian biodefense labs. About 10,000 military personnel and civilians work on the base, which encompasses about 1,300 acres in the city of Frederick.

The base is a huge economic driver in the region, drawing scientists, military personnel and their families. Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor noted that various defense contractors are located near Fort Detrick and that it wouldn’t be unusual for a member of the military to be off base and working with a private firm that does business with the U.S. government.

“When these incidents happen in other places, you’re always grateful that it’s not your community,” O’Connor added. “But you always know, perhaps in the back of your mind, that that’s just luck — that there isn’t any reason why it couldn’t happen here. And today it did.”

By early afternoon, the Nallin Farm gate at Fort Detrick through which the shooter entered remained closed and two officers were standing by.

Mark Nelson, a firefighter who lives in a row of townhomes across the street from the base, said he heard the base blast warning sirens Tuesday morning.

“I heard, I don’t know what they call it, but they were like air raid sirens, and I knew something was going on,” Nelson said.

Lando called the shootings “very tragic.”

“It’s happening too frequently,” he said. Every time we turn on the TV we’re seeing something like this happening. And now it’s happening in our backyards.”

___

Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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The Sonoma County district attorney charged the utility with felony and misdemeanor counts in the October 2019 Kincade Fire north of San Francisco. The blaze burned more than 120 square miles and destroyed 374 buildings.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California prosecutor filed 33 criminal charges Tuesday against the troubled Pacific Gas & Electric for a 2019 wildfire officials blamed on the utility.

The Sonoma County district attorney charged the utility with felony and misdemeanor counts in the October 2019 Kincade Fire north of San Francisco. The blaze burned more than 120 square miles and destroyed 374 buildings.

The utility did not immediately comment.

The 33 charges include recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury to six firefighters.

Fire officials said PG&E transmission lines sparked the fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes and caused nearly 100,000 people to flee.

The charges and related enhancements also accuse the company of destroying inhabited structures and emitting air contaminates “with reckless disregard for the risk of great bodily injury” from toxic wildfire smoke and related particulate matter and ash, thereby endangering public health.

They allege that the utility failed to maintain services and facilities including transmission lines, one of several related misdemeanor charges.

It’s the latest in a series of similar problems for the utility, which was also charged after another devastating fire destroyed much of the Sierra foothills community of Paradise in 2018 in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s recorded history.

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The shooting happened the day Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to visit Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

A 2-year-old boy was shot in the head during an apparent road-rage incident late Tuesday morning on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.

The boy was at Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said.

A dispute over one car not letting the another car into a lane of traffic about 11 a.m. on northbound Lake Shore Drive just south of Soldier Field apparently led to the shooting, Chicago Police Cmdr. Jake Alderden said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Both cars continued north and shooting began on Lake Shore Drive just west of the Shedd Aquarium. Bullet casings were recovered over a two-block stretch as the cars proceeded north, he said.

The vehicle the 2-year-old was in crashed at Monroe Street and Lake Shore Drive, near the Chicago Yacht Club and Maggie Daley Park.

A good Samaritan in a passing Tesla saw the crashed car and drove the boy and a male and female occupant to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The boy, who was shot in the temple, was later transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital, police said.

A handgun was recovered from an occupant of the crashed vehicle, though police couldn’t immediately say if it was used in the shooting or if it was possessed legally.

Alderden expected information about the other car involved in the shooting, which fled the scene, to be released soon.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

A bullet hole could be seen in the rear passenger window of the crashed vehicle. Northbound Lake Shore Drive was closed until about 1:30 p.m. as police investigated.

The shooting occurred two hours before Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

CPD said it could not immediately say how many road-rage shootings happen in the city each year.

Illinois State Police said there have 56 expressway shootings in the Chicago area this year, a 167% increase compared to last year at this time. Between Jan. 1, 2020, through April 5, 2020, state police investigated 21 expressway shootings. State police couldn’t say how many of those shootings were road-rage incidents.

Police have responded to at least five other shootings this year in the Loop.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Last weekend two men were wounded in separate shootings on Lower Wacker Drive. On Easter, an 18-year-old man was shot about 7:10 a.m. while driving with his girlfriend in the first block of North Lower Wacker, police said. Struck in the neck, he was hospitalized in critical condition. Before dawn Saturday, a 29-year-old man was shot in his knee as he traveled in a vehicle on Lower Wacker, police said.

On March 19, three people were arrested for allegedly firing gunshots shortly after midnight in the first block of East Lake Street, police said. A hotel security guard gave a vehicle description to police, who found the car on Wacker Drive.

In October 2020, prosecutors said Lake Shore Drive became a “shooting gallery” when someone shot out the eye of a 19-year-old woman in a vehicle at Jackson Boulevard, just south of where the child was shot Tuesday.

Chicago police’s 1st District, which covers the Loop and South Loop, has seen two other shootings this year through March 28, according to police statistics. Overall crime in the district has fallen 35% over the same period last year, according to the numbers. Meanwhile, reports of sex assault and vehicle thefts have increased over the last year.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney

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Surveillance video of the March 29 attack near Times Square showed that the doormen didn’t step outside and approach the woman until more than a minute after the violence stopped and the assailant walked away.

NEW YORK — Two New York City apartment building workers have been fired for failing to help an Asian American woman as she was being violently attacked on the sidewalk outside, the building’s management company said Tuesday.

Surveillance video of the March 29 attack near Times Square showed that the doormen didn’t step outside and approach the woman until more than a minute after the violence stopped and the assailant walked away.

The men watched from the lobby as 65-year-old Vilma Kari was repeatedly kicked and stomped, the video showed. One of them closed the building’s door as Kari lay on the ground seconds after the attack ended.

The building’s management company, The Brodsky Organization, initially suspended the doormen pending an investigation. That investigation was completed on Tuesday and the doormen were fired, the company said.

“While the full lobby video shows that once the assailant had departed, the doormen emerged to assist the victim and flag down an NYPD vehicle, it is clear that required emergency and safety protocols were not followed,” the company said in a statement.

The Brodsky Organization also pledged to give all building services employees training on emergency response protocols, anti-bias awareness and bystander intervention.

The doormen’s union, SEIU 32BJ, confirmed that they had been fired but declined to comment further. The union previously said that the doormen waited until the attacker walked away to check on Kari and flag down a nearby patrol car because they thought he had a knife.

The surveillance video shows a police car pulling up about a minute after the doormen went outside. The workers and officers are seen with her on the sidewalk for several more minutes before the video cuts off.

Brandon Elliot, a 38-year-old parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago, was charged with assault and attempted assault as hate crimes. He is scheduled to be arraigned on a felony indictment on April 21. His lawyers have urged the public to “reserve judgment until all the facts are presented in court.”

Kari, who emigrated from the Philippines several decades ago, was attacked outside a luxury apartment building while walking to church. She suffered serious injuries including a fractured pelvis and spent a day in the hospital.

Kari’s daughter, Elizabeth Kari, posted Sunday on a fundraising webpage she set up for her mother’s care that Vilma Kari “has been resting these past few days and wants to send her best as your energy, prayers, and thoughts have reached her and our family.”

The attack, among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, drew widespread condemnation and raised alarms about what appeared to be the failure of bystanders to help. Police said no one called 911 and that patrol officers driving by came upon Kari after she was assaulted.

Elizabeth Kari said that a person across the street who was not seen on surveillance video helped by screaming to distract the attacker.

A widely seen snippet of the surveillance video ended as the attacker was walking away from Kari. Elizabeth Kari said that the attacker was crossing the street and heading toward the bystander who screamed at him. That person has remained anonymous, she said.

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Ritter played the wizard Eldred Worple in “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince,” and a devious political operative in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace.”

LONDON — Versatile British actor Paul Ritter, whose roles ranged from a hapless suburban patriarch in sitcom “Friday Night Dinner” to a Soviet engineer who helps cause a nuclear disaster in “Chernobyl,” has died, his agent said Tuesday. He was 54 and had been suffering from a brain tumor.

A familiar face to British television viewers and theatregoers, Ritter played Martin Goodman, the eccentric father of a London Jewish family, in the acerbic but warm Channel 4 sitcom “Friday Night Dinner.”

He also played ill-fated nuclear engineer Anatoly Dyatlov in the Emmy-winning HBO drama “Chernobyl;” the wizard Eldred Worple in “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince;” and a devious political operative in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace.”

Those who worked with Ritter in his most famous roles rated him highly. Robert Popper, the creator of “Friday Night Dinner,” said Ritter “was a lovely, wonderful human being. Kind, funny, super caring and the greatest actor I ever worked with.”

“Chernobyl” screenwriter Craig Mazin said on Twitter that Ritter was “one of the most gentle, gracious and brilliant people I’ve ever known, much less worked with. We lost him today, and far too soon. I wish his family and loved ones peace and comfort as they mourn the passing of this beautiful man.”

Ritter was a compelling stage actor, a frequent and memorable cast member in productions at Britain’s National Theatre, including “All My Sons,” “Coram Boy” and “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.” He also appeared in “Art” at London’s Old Vic and on a West End stage as Prime Minister John Major, performing opposite Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth II in the royal drama “The Audience.”

Getty Images

The actor was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 for his performance in Alan Ayckbourn’s farce “The Norman Conquests” on Broadway.

Actor Russell Tovey said Ritter was “one of the nicest and best actors you’ll ever meet.”

Actor-comedian Rob Delaney tweeted that Ritter had “knocked it out of the PARK in Chernobyl. Watching it I consciously thought, ‘Oh, we have a new movie star.’ Between that & how funny he was in Friday Night Dinner… just unreal talent.”

Agency Markham, Froggatt & Irwin said Ritter died Monday night “peacefully at home with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side.”

“Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill,” the agency said. “He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.”

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