chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Fourth of July weekend gun violence in Chicago includes 17 killed, including 2 children, and dozens

Fourth of July weekend gun violence in Chicago includes 17 killed, including 2 children, and dozens more wounded

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A shooting victim is transported after being shot in the abdomen in the 600 block of E. 40th Street in the Bronzeville neighborhood, July 5, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
At least 17 people died and 63 others were injured in Chicago due to gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend so far. Two killed overnight were young, continuing a string of children fatally shot in recent weeks.
The youngest person killed over the weekend was 7-year-old Natalia Wallace, of Chatham. She was shot in the head around 7 p.m. Saturday in the South Austin neighborhood while outside at a family gathering.
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A 14-year-old boy was also shot and killed later in the night in Englewood along with three others who have not yet been identified after four men started shooting at a large gathering, according to Chicago police. Four others were injured in the mass shooting, including an 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy.
[ 8 shot, 4 fatally in Englewood shooting, police say ]
This is now the third week in a row to include the death of young children. A 20-month-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were killed in separate shootings last weekend. A week earlier, five children were fatally shot, including a 3-year-old boy.
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On Sunday afternoon, several relatives of Natalia — whose nickname was Natalie, according to one family member — gathered outside her family’s home on North Latrobe Avenue, a block lined with big, single-family houses, some of them with wrought-iron gates. A group of people played basketball on a hoop set up in the street as a few apparent firecrackers went off.
A makeshift memorial was set up for Natalia outside the home. Balloons and carnations decorated a nearby front lawn. A big teddy bear and other stuffed animals were affixed to a tree along with maroon and purple ribbons.
On the sidewalk, multicolored messages scrawled in chalk read “NATALIA WALLACE 1/22/13 - 7/4/20,” “RIP,” “GONE TOO SOON,” and “WE GONE MISS YOUR SMILE.”
Linda Rogers, Natalia’s grandmother, said her granddaughter was shot while playing with other kids.
“Bullets just came from nowhere,” she said, clutching a florescent green water bottle in one hand. “Whoever did it, I wished they’d come forward.”
“She didn’t deserve that,” said Monique Wallace, Natalia’s aunt. “We can’t bring her back. But we want justice.”
Rogers said Natalia had only left the house for two minutes "and then I came out here and my grand baby (was) lying on the ground.
“Jesus, help us Father,” Rogers said in a loud sob, looking toward the sky.
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Nathan Wallace, Natalia’s father, described his daughter as fun, outgoing and very caring. Family members said in school she liked math, reading and drawing. She also liked to dance, they said.
“Just being outside and doing what every other kid would do, and for your life to be cut down short like that ... It takes a toll on all of us,” said Nathan Wallace. “I’m hurt, I’m angry, I’m sad, disappointed. It’s something that no parent wants to do. Who wants to bury your child? It should be the other way around.”
“She was outgoing. She always said I love you. I’m truly going to miss her. She was my baby,” said Natalia’s great-great aunt Shelley Fulton.”
Two police officers donning masks to protect against COVID-19 walked through the block. Nathan and Monique Wallace said the area needs more police because of the violence, not less, which has been a rallying cry for some activists since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.
“You hear this all the time on the news,” Nathan Wallace said, “but it hits home when it’s actually somebody that you know.”
The Rev. James Stevenson, who grew up in the Austin community, said the city is experiencing “another dimension of a pandemic.”
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“It’s very violent. It’s senseless. It’s uncalled for. And I think that it’s time for us to bring back the solidarity of the community and some unity and some love,” said Stevenson, pastor of Sweet Relief Baptist Church in Austin. “People got to put the guns down.”
Stevenson, who once lived on the block where Natalia was killed, said Austin had white and Black families before becoming a mostly Black neighborhood as time went on.
“We were a family. And our parents raised each other’s children. This neighbor slept at my house. I slept at that neighbor’s house. And we would have block club parties. And everybody just knew each other. And when one person was in trouble, we all were there ... It was no division. It was no adversarial activity ... But now things have drastically changed,” said Stevenson. “With the drug infestation. The unemployment. And with the lack of jobs and things of that nature, so crime is on the rise. But we’re yet still here standing trying to bring some hope and possibility of hope to this community, and to those families over here.”
Most of the shootings that occurred from 3 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Sunday happened in the South and West sides, which have long experienced gun violence and gang crime. The only North Side shootings occurred in the Rogers Park district.
[ 2 killed, 16 wounded in overnight shootings as Fourth of July weekend gets underway in Chicago ]
Another shooting with a large number of victims occurred in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, police said. Six people were shot at about 1:15 a.m. after someone in a vehicle fired into a group shooting off fireworks.
A 20-year-old woman was killed, three men are in critical condition and two other men were in good condition as a result of the shooting.
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The latest spate of gun violence prompted a small group of community activists to gather on a corner in Little Village Sunday morning to call for President Donald Trump’s help in restoring “law and order” to Chicago.
The city has exhausted all remedies, said activist Raul Montes Jr., who said he believes nothing can be done to stop the shootings until Mayor Lori Lightfoot agrees to work closer with Chicago police and the president.
Though the Chicago Police Department added more than 1,200 extra officers to work the holiday weekend, Frank Coconate, a political operative and activist, said this was ineffective, due to a lack of cooperation between neighborhood leaders and the police.
“It’s not the police’s fault, they’re just doing what they are told to do,” Coconate said during the Little Village press conference. “A lot of this stuff is showing you what happens when police’s hands are tied by the Mayor.”
When asked about calls to defund the police and reallocate money to neighborhood services, Coconate said “it is ridiculous.”
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Belmont-Cragin resident and activist Jacqueline Baez said Chicagoans need police to feel safe in their communities. Baez also called on the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to institute harsher sentences for violent crimes.
Last year over the long Fourth of July weekend, six people were killed and 63 were wounded by gun violence.
The last time the Fourth of July fell on a Saturday was in 2015, when 10 were killed and 55 others were injured. This year has already surpassed 2015′s death toll with one night left of the weekend.
Within just four hours — from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday — 36 people were shot, nearly half of the weekend’s total so far.
Lightfoot lamented the latest spate of violence on Twitter, claiming the city has made progress in slowing shootings “but we have to do better, every single one of us.”
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As families gather to commemorate the founding of our nation, we must ask ourselves: is this who we are as a city or as a country? We cannot grow numb to this. We are making progress in slowing shootings, but we have to do better, every single one of us. — Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) July 5, 2020
The dispatch of an additional 1,200 officers this holiday weekend was fewer than the 1,500 deployed last year, to curtail overtime and give officers a break.
Police Superintendent David Brown also said at a news conference Thursday that the city would run “strategic missions” to recover illegal guns and work with violence prevention community groups.
An earlier version of this story included total shootings that occurred between 3 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Sunday. Because of the holiday weekend, shootings that occurred between 3 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday were added to be consistent with how gun violence has been tallied in past years.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Only 6 new COVID-19 deaths reported Sunday, the lowest daily total

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Only 6 new COVID-19 deaths reported Sunday, the lowest daily total since March 26

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We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Dontana Johnson races against his children, Damurious, 9, left, Kobe-Michael, 6, center, and Baby, 5, on the lawn of Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion while celebrating the 4th of July 2020. The family lives in North Lawndale. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois announced just six new deaths from COVID-19 Sunday, as the number of total deaths continues to trend downward this weekend.
Sunday’s death toll marked the lowest recorded in Illinois from coronavirus since March 26, when seven deaths were logged. Ten COVID-19 deaths were reported Saturday. The overall toll now stands at 7,020 deaths.
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While COVID-19 deaths continue to surge in some other states, Illinois recorded its highest daily number – 192 – on May 13.
Also Sunday, there were 639 additional COVID-19 reported cases Sunday, bringing the state’s total to 147,251. This news comes as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot continues to crack down on bars and restaurants over the Fourth of July weekend, and warns travelers coming from states with high cases they will need to quarantine for 14 days after returning.
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[ How to assess your COVID-19 risk when going out in public: Use this chart ]
[ Phase four of Illinois’s COVID-19 reopening: Settle in, folks, we may be here a while ]
[ Illinois enters phase 4 of reopening plan. Here’s a guide to what’s allowed. ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
Here’s what’s happening this weekend regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
11:45 a.m.: Pritzker condemns cartoon comparing face mask order to Holocaust
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said a political cartoon likening Kansas face mask requirement to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust a “disgusting display by ignorant Republicans.”
Pritzker, a lead fundraiser for the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, said in a Tweet condemning the cartoon that the museum was intended to “fight this kind of hate.” Read more here. – Jessica Villagomez
10:30 a.m.: 2 unnamed White Sox players test positive for COVID-19
Two unnamed Chicago White Sox players have tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced Sunday. Both players are asymptomatic and have been isolated in Chicago, according to the team.
They are being monitored by the Sox medical staff. Follow-up testing will take place in the coming days. The players can return after they have recorded consecutive negative tests and have passed COVID-19 protocols. Read more here. — LaMond Pope
9:35 a.m.: IHSA contact days go into effect Monday as state enters new phase for returning to play
The IHSA announced that its Phase 4 Return to Play guidelines were approved by the Illinois Department of Health, effective Sunday. It means contact days can begin on Monday, July 6.
Originally, the IHSA was calling this Stage 2, but changed its verbiage to Phase 4 to match the wording of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, which also will be entering Phase 4.
Phase 4 opens up sport-specific activities. Athletes have been limited to non sport-specific workouts over the past month, basically conditioning in groups of 10.
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Now, groups of 50 are allowed to work together. If outdoors, different groups of 50 must be 30 feet apart from each other. If indoors, there are to be no groups larger than 50, regardless of space. Read more here. — Paul Johnson
9:30 a.m. Sunday: Elgin libraries, museums to reopen beginning Monday, but ‘things will not look the same,’ officials say
The Gail Borden Public Library is to reopen to patrons Monday morning, more than three months after it last welcomed guests.
However, the revolving doors won’t be in use. Plexiglass partitions will divide employees from visitors. Several computers and pieces of furniture have been stored away. And yes, masks will be required.
Gail Borden is among the Elgin-area libraries and museums welcoming guests to their buildings for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March. Officials advise visitors that the library and museum experience will look and feel entirely different.
The nearly 154,000 square-foot main building of Gail Borden is limiting occupancy to no more than 250 visitors at one time. Capacity reductions also will be in place at the smaller Rakow and South Elgin branches, Raleigh said. There will be capacity limits within some sections of the library as well. Read more here. — Rafael Guerrero
4:29 p.m. Saturday: 10 additional deaths from COVID-19, lowest daily total of deaths since the end of March
Illinois announced 10 new deaths from COVID-19 Saturday, the lowest daily total of deaths since March 30.
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Comparing March 30 with July 4 shows the outbreak at two distinct moments. On March 30, the state announced 461 new confirmed coronavirus cases. Saturday, Illinois announced 862.
True, that is nearly twice as many cases, but on March 30 the state only announced the results of 2,684 tests. That means on March 30, 17.2% of those tests came back positive. On Saturday, the state announced 33,836 test results — a positivity rate of 2.6. If you applied the March 30 positivity rate to the number of tests released Saturday that would mean more than 5,800 new cases.
—Chicago Tribune staff
4:26 p.m.: Evanston Independence Day celebration one of many to go online
After 98 years of top-ranked July Fourth traditions, the city of Evanston celebrated this year in an entirely new, virtual manner because of COVID-19.
Themed “Community United Cannot Be Divided,” the day’s celebration featured a 20-minute online behind-the-scenes look at the work that normally goes into the city’s Independence Day, a 45-minute virtual parade showing old videos of various organizations and a pre-recorded concert and fireworks show to conclude festivities at night.
Evanston’s usual Independence Day sights, including about 15,000 people gathered to watch the city’s parade on the streets, were replaced with about 120 online spectators watching pre-recorded visuals of past celebrations from home.
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”Since our organization has been active now for 99 years, we’re very good at doing a traditional celebration,” said Bruce Baumberger, Trustee Emeritus of Evanston’s Fourth of July Association. “… The virtual celebration was something new to us.”
Evanston’s budget was down about $20 million due to COVID-19, which led the association to look into other cost-efficient ways of hosting a celebration, Baumberger said. What normally took hundreds of volunteers to plan needed only “a few people mastering the technology” with the group’s updated plans this year.
”It’s been a great opportunity to build on and maximize this really great opportunity out of adversity,” Baumberger said.
Viewers from across America interacted with each other in the comments section and remarked on the various groups featured in Evanston’s virtual parade. “Born in the USA,” “I’m Proud to be an American” and other patriotic songs were synchronized with the show, which at one point showed a virtual rendition of the “National Emblem March,” a standard for military marching bands that salutes the American Flag.
”Love seeing this. Usually [I travel to] Evanston for the Fourth of July,” one Facebook commenter wrote during the morning livestream. “I am missing this for so many reasons!”
—Kelli Smith
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4:06 p.m.: Farrkhan delivers online speech regarding coronavirus
Minister Louis Farrakhan deliver a speech Saturday to address the current state of America, mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest people of color are dealing with after the killing of George Floyd captured on video.
Farrakhan, the leader of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, started the speech, titled the Criterion, by mentioning the death of one of the Nation of Islam’s student ministers, Abdul Hafeez Muhammad, who died from COVID-19 in April at age 53.
”He was a martyr like all who have lost their lives in this nation, Black and White and the colors in between,” Farrakhan said.
Later in the speech, he said the privileged in our country are being faced with a reckoning for their wrongdoing.
He also warned the Black community to stand clear of those oppressing them, so they won’t be touched by God’s wrath.
He encouraged everyone to remain decent during these times. At one point he told those listening to wear their masks and look into other therapies to treat the disease. He also called upon the world’s scientist and doctors to work together to solve COVID-19.
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In closing he thanked the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who he called his brother, and prayed to God for his protection as he continues to fight injustice in the Black community. He prayed for peace for all Americans and the world suffering from COVID-19.
—Deanese Williams-Harris
12:46 p.m.: Chosen Few DJs move annual House music fest online because of coronavirus
You can’t stop the House continues to be true in 2020 after the Chosen Few DJs moved their annual musical celebration online to bring the disco to Chicago on July Fourth.
The Chosen Few Old School Reunion Picnic has remained a family event over the years, and when COVID-19 struck, its organizers decided to continue the peaceful tradition, which draws hundreds of thousands to Jackson Park, to a virtual celebration.
At noon, the celebration was scheduled to kick off with guest DJ Deon Cole, an actor and comedian who’s a South Side native. The annual House music festival’s virtual party will continue until 9 p.m. and include the Chosen Few DJs, and guest singer and song writer Carla Prather and Byron Stingley of Ten City, officials said.
The virtual celebration can be viewed at www.chosenfewdjs.com.
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On the turntables throughout the day will be the Chosen Few DJs, Wayne Williams, Jesse Sanders, Tony Hatchett, Alan King, Terry Hunter and Mike Dunn.
—Deanese Williams-Harris
8:45 a.m.: Illinois opening more centers to support small businesses hit by coronavirus pandemic
Seven new state-run centers will open this summer to support Illinois small businesses.
The Small Business Development Centers set to launch in July or already opened are in Chicago, Elgin and Joliet. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development said the $11.5 million effort brings the total of centers statewide to 42.
"With many Illinois businesses currently facing unprecedented burdens as a result of COVID-19 and recent civil unrest, our SBDC community partners can be a lifeline for businesses working to reopen safely," said Michael Negron, acting director of the department.
Business owners can get one-on-one confidential advice and assistance at the centers on many topics including education, training and business planning.
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The centers also have helped small businesses seek financial assistance during the coronavirus pandemic, which forced many to close or dramatically change day-to-day operations. — Associated Press
7:52 a.m.: Hundreds of Joliet nurses strike after hospital, union fail to reach contract
More than 700 nurses at Amita Health Saint Joseph Medical Center Joliet went on strike Saturday morning, after the nurses union and hospital failed to reach a contract agreement.
The nurses at Amita Health Saint Joseph Medical Center Joliet have been working without a contract since May 9 and have been in negotiations since February.
The nurses’ union, the Illinois Nurses Association, has not said how long the strike would last. The union said in a news release Saturday nurses would picket outside the hospital at 333 Madison St., in Joliet.
Amita Health, which has 19 hospitals in Illinois, has contracted with an agency to provide temporary nurses, according to spokesman Tim Nelson. Read the full story here. — Lisa Schencker
7:45 a.m. Saturday: Illinois regulators warn casinos to take virus precautions
Casinos that fail to follow guidelines aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus could be disciplined, including loss of their license, Illinois regulators warned this week.
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Illinois allowed video gaming businesses and casinos to begin reopening on Wednesday. Marcus Fruchter, administrator of the Illinois Gaming Board, reminded operators in a message released Thursday that they must follow state protocols for operating during the pandemic.
Requirements include face coverings in gaming establishments and casinos and social distancing along with regular hand washing, Fruchter said.
Failing to comply could result in discipline, including revoked licenses, he said.
“More importantly, disregard of such preventative measures and requirements could contribute to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Illinois and another potential suspension of gaming operations,” he said. “That is a result nobody wants. We urge you not to let it happen.” — Associated Press
3:08 p.m.: Chicago will rely largely on signs along highways and at airports as it orders self-quarantine for people who visit states where COVID-19 is surging
Chicago health officials said Friday they have no plan for enforcing the city’s abrupt quarantine order for people arriving from states where coronavirus cases are surging, but will rely largely on signs posted along highways and at the two airports.
“We do not have a plan to, for example, look for out-of-state license plates and pull people over,” the city’s public health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, said at a news conference. “We do not have a plan to create a list of individuals who are traveling and try to track them down.”
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Arwady said the city’s main goal with the order is to emphasize travel risks during the pandemic. She said the city is also working with airlines to notify people booking Chicago destinations. “We want people to be thinking twice about whether now is a good time to travel,” she said.
Read more here. —Sydney Czyzon
2:45 p.m.: 868 new known COVID-19 cases, 18 additional deaths
The state announced 18 new deaths Friday from COVID-19, bringing the total toll of the virus to 7,005. Also announced were 868 new confirmed cases and the results of 34,318 tests.
In passing the 7,000 mark, Illinois has the fourth most deaths for any state behind New York with 31,836, New Jersey with 15,164 and Massachusetts with 8,132, according to New York Times data.
In Illinois, 2,628 of those deaths, a little over a third, were in Chicago, with 1,990 more in suburban Cook County. Among the collar counties, DuPage and Lake have the most coronavirus deaths with 474 and 421, respectively. Will is lower with 320, as are Kane with 274 and McHenry with 97. There have been coronavirus deaths in 59 of the state’s 102 counties.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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1:43 p.m.: Day after judge declares his executive orders void, Gov. J.B. Pritzker urges restaurants, bars to keep following safety guidelines
A day after a southern Illinois judge ruled that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the new coronavirus are void, the Democratic governor and the state’s top health official are urging restaurants and bars and their customers to continue following safety guidelines heading into the Fourth of July weekend.
“The virus is not taking the holiday weekend off, and neither can we. Letting our guard down now would fly in the face of the progress we’ve made over many months,” Pritzker said in a statement Friday. “We have seen that mitigation measures have worked in our state and we’ve seen too many other states rapidly lose ground in the fight against the virus.”
Those measures include wearing masks in public, maintaining proper social distancing and abiding by capacity limits in restaurants, bars and other businesses.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
1:20 p.m.: In a Chicago first, the Shedd Aquarium reopens to visitors. What’s different with COVID-19 practices in place?
The Shedd Aquarium officially reopened to the public Friday morning, admitting paying visitors for the first time since March after two days of members-only previews, the first of Chicago’s major museums to do so. Elsewhere on the Museum Campus, the Adler Planetarium and Field Museum have not announced reopening dates.
Inside its marble interior, the glass of the Shedd’s Caribbean Reef tank gleamed, signs and staff members directed foot traffic and the many varied species of fish and aquatic life swam, wide eyed and utterly aloof to visitors, as they always seem to do. Returning museum-goers will notice a one big if unsurprising difference from before — the lack of crowds and noise. For many Chicagoans and suburbanites with families, the metaphor of choice for sweaty overcrowding isn’t a train car, it’s summer at the Shedd.
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Read more here. —Doug George
8 a.m.: Zanies comedy clubs are reopening in Chicago, Rosemont
Call this a COVID-19 era first for comedy in Chicago. The two remaining Chicago-area Zanies comedy clubs have announced they will reopen in July — the downtown Zanies (1548 N. Wells St.; 312-337-4027) and Zanies in Rosemont (5437 Park Place at Parkway Bank Park; 847-813-0484).
Zanies in Chicago opens July 10 with headliner Vince Carone, who released the comedy album “Vincectomy” in March. Plus Ben Noble and host Jayson Cross. 9 p.m. July 10; 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. July 11; $30 plus a 2 item minimum. The following weekend will be Adam Burke with Sonal Aggarwahl July 17-18.
Zanies in Rosemont opens July 17 with headliner and Zanies favorite Pat McGann, who will debut a comedy special July 28 presented by Sebastian Maniscalso. (“When’s Mom Gonna Be Home?” will be via Comedy Dynamics.) McGann is performing July 17 at 9p.m., July 18 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; $35 plus a 2 item minimum.
Tickets must be purchased in advance at www.zanies.com (no tickets at the door). Only 50 tickets will be sold for each show.
In addition, there will be six feet of separation between tables and the club will be disinfected between performances. The clubs are going paperless and cashless, with extra cleaning of barware health screenings for staff. Masks are required for entry and while patrons are not at their seats. More information about upcoming schedules and additional precautions at www.zanies.com.
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—Doug George
7:45 a.m.: Bars and restaurants find themselves at coronavirus crossroads for July Fourth: ‘It’s going to be a tough weekend’
Ahead of a summer holiday weekend that, in normal times, would mean packed patios and crowded bars, restaurant and bar owners are facing fines of up to $10,000 if COVID-19 restrictions are flouted.
It’s a tough line to toe for businesses just barely scraping by after nearly three months of being closed due to the pandemic. In Pilsen, La Vaca Margarita Bar has been open for outdoor dining for a few weeks, converting its parking lot into a patio with tables spaced 6 feet apart.
Read more here. —Josh Noel, Louisa Chu, Adam Lukach, Gregory Pratt and Grace Wong
7:30 a.m.: South Side hospital failed to properly triage a pregnant woman who later died, Illinois regulators find
A pregnant woman died after Roseland Community Hospital failed to triage her upon arrival and conduct a medical screening exam, the state health department found in a recent investigation.
The woman, who was 30 weeks pregnant, died at the South Side hospital in May after complaining of abdominal pain, dehydration and general malaise after she arrived at the hospital by ambulance. Her triage note was marked 2:54 p.m. — more than three hours after she arrived.
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The Illinois Department of Public Health found Roseland to be out of compliance on the requirement that hospitals meet the emergency needs of patients “in accordance with acceptable standards of practice.”
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are three things that happened Thursday related to coronavirus in Illinois:
A federal judge denied a GOP request to prevent Pritzker’s crowd limit rule from applying to political gatherings.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city officials threaten to shut down bars that don’t follow social distancing guidelines.
Wrigley Field rooftops reach agreement with city to open for Cubs games, rooftop manager says.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--19-year-old woman seriously injured after being struck by SUV on I-94

The woman was an occupant in a vehicle that pulled over to the left shoulder after experiencing mechanical issues , @ @ @ @ @ exited the vehicle , she was struck by the SUV about 5 a.m .
The @ @ @ @ @ struck her left the scene .

A 19-year-old woman was struck by a gold SUV near Interstate 94 local lanes at Garfield Boulevard early Sunday, according to the Illinois State Police.
The woman was an occupant in a vehicle that pulled over to the left shoulder after experiencing mechanical issues, police said. When she exited the vehicle, she was struck by the SUV about 5 a.m. The driver of the vehicle that struck her left the scene.
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The woman was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said.
A crash investigation is ongoing, according to police.
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All lanes were open by about 8:30 a.m. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact state police at 847-294-4400.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Where does Illinois stand on the reopening plan? Here are the charts

With each of the state ’ s four regions in Phase 3 of Gov .
J.B. Pritzker ’ s Restore @ @ @ @ @ starts on moving on to Phase 4 , where more businesses and activities are allowed @ @ @ @ @ Illinois — from restaurants and salons to open space to non-COVID-19 procedures at the hospital @ @ @ @ @ depends on a host of metrics laid out by Pritzker .

Chad Yoder, Nausheen Husain, Jennifer Smith Richards, Jonathon Berlin

With each of the state’s four regions in Phase 3 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, the clock starts on moving on to Phase 4, where more businesses and activities are allowed. The plan to reopen Illinois — from restaurants and salons to open space to non-COVID-19 procedures at the hospital to concerts and festivals — depends on a host of metrics laid out by Pritzker.
The metrics focus on a rolling average of positive coronavirus cases and hospitalizations to keep track of the direction of the outbreak as well as availability of hospital beds and ventilators that would be needed to handle a possible surge. There are also benchmarks for testing and tracing positive tests.
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
A key element of the plan is that a region can move both forward and backward, where more parts of society can open and shut depending on the seriousness of the outbreak.
Here is a breakdown of where each region stands.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer .

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Illinois coronavirus graphs: 7,020 deaths, 147,251 confirmed cases, 1.76 million tests, 4.24% positi

Illinois coronavirus graphs: 7,020 deaths, 147,251 confirmed cases, 1.76 million tests, 4.24% positivity rate for Chicago area

The data shows that deaths from the coronavirus are much more prevalent among those older than 60 .
Those 60 @ @ @ @ @ 22 % of Illinois ’ population , according to census data , but represent 86 @ @ @ @ @ died .

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Ald. Michele Smith keeps Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed change to lobbying rules on indefinite hold

“ This legislation is common sense , ” he said then .
“ When it ’ s said , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ ’ we are surrounded by impropriety at the state level , at the county level @ @ @ @ @ The feds are all around us .
We need to send a message that this @ @ @ @ @ .
If we need to come back in three months or six months and alter @ @ @ @ @ ll work with ( the Law Department ) .

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s move to roll back rules to prevent elected officials from outside Chicago from lobbying the city is going nowhere for the time being.
Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith, who the mayor picked to chair the City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight, said last week she has no plans to call Lightfoot’s ordinance for a vote.
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The mayor wants to roll back part of a package the council passed in December. If Lightfoot’s plan passed, elected officials from outside Chicago could again lobby aldermen, the mayor’s office and other city government offices, as long as the public body they represent doesn’t have pending or recurring legislative or contractual matters involving the city of Chicago.
“First of all I don’t personally support it, and I think that right now there are plenty of other things we need to be dealing with as a body without adding this,” Smith said of Lightfoot’s proposal. “I think there’s probably a long debate to be had about it, but now is not the time.”
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In response to Smith’s decision, mayoral spokeswoman Anel Ruiz said the administration will work with the alderman to address the rules.
“Alderman Smith is a valued partner in the critical work that needs to be done around ethics reform,” Ruiz said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with her, in close collaboration, to make any necessary updates to any existing lobbying policies.”
Smith backed the measure passed last year that banned aldermen from lobbying the City Council, the county, the state or any other local government unit, and also prohibited any other elected officials in the state from lobbying units of city government.
In April, Lightfoot introduced her own ordinance, arguing it didn’t weaken the new stricter rules.
“What we heard through the Board of Ethics was some concern that the original language of the ordinance that was passed last fall swept too broadly and extended to elected officials in other jurisdictions that were doing some business here in the city of Chicago. That wasn’t our intent,” the mayor said.
Among those Lightfoot’s proposal would benefit is Gyata Kimmons, who registered with the city in 2019 as a lobbyist on behalf of Walmart, McDonald’s, Westfield Concession Management Inc., the United Center Joint Venture and the Illinois Retail Sweepstakes and Promotion Association.
Kimmons also is a village trustee in south suburban Flossmoor, according to the village website.
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As the mayor was introducing her plan in April, Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, argued Kimmons’ position in Flossmoor shouldn’t interfere with his lobbying work in Chicago.
“They don’t have anything to do with one another,” said Burnett, one of Lightfoot’s City Council allies.
Aldermen adopted the stronger city lobbyist regulations last fall as a federal investigation reached into the world of Springfield lobbying. State Rep. Luis Arroyo resigned in November after he was arrested on a federal bribery charge accusing him of paying a bribe to a state senator in exchange for support of a gambling bill that would have benefited a lobbying client of Arroyo’s.
Smith was joined in pushing for the new standards by Southwest Side Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, who defended the plan when a handful of aldermen voiced concerns in December about registered lobbyists who would be forced to give up positions on low-paid suburban bodies in order to keep lobbying Chicago government.
“This legislation is common sense,” he said then. “When it’s said, ‘the thought of impropriety,’ we are surrounded by impropriety at the state level, at the county level and in this body. The feds are all around us. We need to send a message that this B.S. is over with. If we need to come back in three months or six months and alter it, then we’ll work with (the Law Department).
“We need to send the message to the people that we represent in our communities that the buck stops here and the bulls--- is going to stop,” he added.
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Smith said the new rules would allow the city to “(lead) the state in these kinds of ethical reforms, which is a different look for Chicago.”
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--The Dreadhead Cowboy rides for peace

The Dreadhead Cowboy rides for peace

Under the name Dreadhead Cowboy , Adam Hollingsworth often rides his horses through the streets of Chicago and has attended @ @ @ @ @ on horseback , including in Minneapolis and in downtown Chicago after Black man George Floyd @ @ @ @ @ Minneapolis police officer May 25 , 2020 .
He also brings his horses into Chicago @ @ @ @ @ , especially young children , can take a ride and share his love of his @ @ @ @ @ struggled with wrongful incarceration and a shooting injury before finding a new sense of purpose @ @ @ @ @ introduced him to horses .
“ If a horse can change my life , I @ @ @ @ @ it can change other people ’ s lives , ” Hollingsworth said .

Natasha Martin, who said she was afraid of standing next to a horse, overcomes her fear and pets Prince, one of Adam Hollingsworth's horses, on June 23, 2020, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Hollingsworth's son, 12-year-old Akil Hollingsworth, at right, held Prince and encouraged her to touch him. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--7-year-old girl described as ‘very quiet and sweet’ is fatally shot on Chicago’s West Side

“ Natalia was a very quiet and sweet little girl .
She completed every assignment during class , got along @ @ @ @ @ , and colored the most precious pictures ever given to me .
Natalia never hesitated @ @ @ @ @ needed .
Sometimes , her quiet spirit gave her the strength to lead the reading @ @ @ @ @ and she soared when it came to doing math .
During e-learning , Natalia was @ @ @ @ @ At the end of each class session , she would type in the chat box @ @ @ @ @ ‘ ”

Nine-year-old Nathan Wallace holds balloons during a vigil July 5, 2020, for his 7-year-old sister Natalia Wallace, who was shot and killed as her family gathered to celebrate the July Fourth holiday in the South Austin neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
A 7-year-old girl who was known as a diligent and loving student was fatally shot in the head Saturday evening while she was on a sidewalk in the South Austin neighborhood, authorities said.
Emergency crews were called to the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue just after 7 p.m., according to Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.
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The girl, who was shot in the head, was taken to Stroger Hospital, initially in critical condition, Merritt said. Police said she suffered a gunshot wound to the forehead.
An official at Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts said the victim, Natalia Wallace, attended the school was due to enter second grade there this fall.
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The school released a statement, attributed to Natalia’s first grade teacher:
“Natalia was a very quiet and sweet little girl. She completed every assignment during class, got along with all of her peers, and colored the most precious pictures ever given to me. Natalia never hesitated to ask for clarity when needed. Sometimes, her quiet spirit gave her the strength to lead the reading lessons within her group, and she soared when it came to doing math. During e-learning, Natalia was always present and participating. At the end of each class session, she would type in the chat box, ‘I Love You.‘”
She was a resident of Chatham, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Natalia Wallace, who authorities said was shot and killed July 4, 2020, in Chicago’s South Austin neighborhood, had completed first grade at Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts this spring. (HANDOUT)
She was on the sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and people got out and started shooting toward where she was, according to a police media notification.
“Chicago’s heart is broke,” said Chicago police Chief Fred Waller. “A 7-year-old girl was taken from us. She was here visiting family. Now she’s gone.”
Wallace was visiting her grandmother, Waller said. She was outside with others during a family get-together. Three men got out of a white vehicle about 50 feet away from where the girl and her family were gathered and fired at least 20 rounds at them.
Detectives are viewing video of the shooting, Waller said. No arrests have been made.
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Police later said there was a second victim, a 32-year-old man, who self-transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the ankle and a graze wound to the leg.
The shooting Saturday follows the wounding Tuesday night of a 3-year-old girl in the West Englewood neighborhood minutes after a 15-year-old boy was shot blocks away, after a 20-month-old boy and 10-year-old girl were killed in separate attacks last weekend. A week earlier, five children were fatally shot, including a 3-year-old boy.
Check back for updates.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Gun decorated with President Trump’s image seized by police on Chicago’s South Side

Chicago police Officer Michelle Tannehill said the weapon was recovered during a traffic stop in the 7300 block of South @ @ @ @ @ Friday evening .
Four people were in the vehicle , but the gun but none @ @ @ @ @ the time .

A gun emblazoned with President Donald Trump’s name and image was confiscated by the Chicago Police Department this weekend.
It was among 17 weapons police in the Englewood district on the South Side said they seized during the holiday weekend, as of Saturday evening.
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Chicago police said that a gun emblazoned with President Donald Trump's name and image was among 17 confiscated during the holiday weekend as of July 4, 2020. (Chicago Police Department)
The weapon, a Glock 19, has a decoration that includes a stars-and-stripes motif, as well as the president’s image, “Trump 45th” and a presidential seal.
Chicago police Officer Michelle Tannehill said the weapon was recovered during a traffic stop in the 7300 block of South Vincennes Avenue in Englewood on Friday evening. Four people were in the vehicle, but the gun but none was carrying the weapon at the time.
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The president has been a regular critic of Chicago gun violence and of the city’s leadership.
Outstanding work on the part of 7th Dist.Officers @ChicagoCAPS07 in the recovery of 17 firearms thus far this weekend. #ChicagoPolice pic.twitter.com/jdxiNc5kIG — Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) July 4, 2020
The gun violence continued in Englewood on Saturday evening when eight people were shot, four fatally, when men opened fire during a large gathering. Among the dead was a 14-year-old boy, police said.
Police Superintendent David Brown said heading into the holiday weekend that the city would run “strategic missions” to recover illegal guns.


chicagotribune--2020-07-05--Illinois Gov. Pritzker condemns Kansas newspaper cartoon equating face mask order with Holocaust

The cartoon depicts Democratic Kansas Gov .
Laura Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it @ @ @ @ @ of people being loaded onto train cars , according to The Associated Press .
Its @ @ @ @ @ Laura says : Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car .
@

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has condemned a Kansas Republican Party official who posted a cartoon comparing that state’s face mask order to the slaughter of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.
The cartoon depicts Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it, next to a drawing of people being loaded onto train cars, according to The Associated Press. Its caption is, “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car.”
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The cartoon was posted Friday on the Facebook page of the Anderson County Review, whose owner and publisher, Dane Hicks, is also the county’s GOP chairman.
On Sunday, Hicks said in a statement on Facebook that he was removing the cartoon after “some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in the U.S. and abroad.”
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It drew international attention and a blog post by Hicks on Saturday defending it also drew critical responses.
“Another disgusting display by ignorant Republicans who fail to understand that their propaganda is costing lives,” Pritzker tweeted Saturday. “I helped build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to fight exactly this kind of hate. America is better than this.”
Another disgusting display by ignorant Republicans who fail to understand that their propaganda is costing lives.
I helped build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to fight exactly this kind of hate.
America is better than this. https://t.co/ITa4sTSoEc — Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) July 5, 2020
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie opened in April 2009. Pritzker was the museum’s chief fundraiser.
Associated Press contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Suspect in custody, charges pending in killing of 7-year-old girl shot while visiting grandmother on

Suspect in custody, charges pending in killing of 7-year-old girl shot while visiting grandmother on West Side

Nine-year-old Nathan Wallace holds balloons during a vigil July 5, 2020, for his 7-year-old sister Natalia Wallace, who was shot and killed as her family gathered to celebrate the July Fourth holiday in the South Austin neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday said she wants “all of us to feel this loss” after another weekend of violence in Chicago yet again took a toll on the city’s children, including the killing of a 7-year-old girl.
The first charges were filed in that case Monday, a slaying police said was the result of gang violence.
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Lightfoot said she had outlined an “all hands on deck” strategy on Thursday to head off another weekend of bloodshed, a plan that included police and street outreach groups. And yet, “we still saw a four-day weekend of 87 Chicagoans shot, 17 Chicagoans killed, and two of them children. Our children,” the mayor said at a news briefing.
Natalia Wallace, who authorities said was shot and killed July 4, 2020, in Chicago’s South Austin neighborhood, had completed first grade at Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts this spring. (HANDOUT)
“I say our children because I want all of us to feel this loss,” Lightfoot said. “It feels personal to me. Thoughts and prayers are simply not enough at this point. Sorrow itself is not enough. What it says is we need to do better as a city.”
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As she has in the past, Lightfoot aimed her comments at the mostly young men who are driving street violence. Lightfoot praised people who did not shoot, but “to the others who shot indiscriminately into crowds,” she said, “I sincerely pray on behalf of a grieving city that you are able to recognize the consequences of what you have done, the souls you have ruptured, and I pray that you find the purpose … that is obviously lacking in your lives.”
[ ‘Bullets just came from nowhere’: Fourth of July weekend gun violence kills at least 17, including 7-year-old-girl ]
Reginald Merrill, 33, of the 5600 block of West Washington Boulevard, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery in the death of 7-year-old Natalia Wallace, police said. Merrill was taken into custody a little more than two hours after the shooting, police said, driving a car matching the description of one used in the shooting.
He was alleged to be the getaway driver and was expected in court Tuesday. Police said they were looking for three other suspects.
A person leaves flowers during a vigil Sunday, July 5, 2020, for 7-year-old Natalia Wallace, who was shot in the head and killed as her family gathered to celebrate the holiday Saturday night in the South Austin neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
“This is … ongoing gang-on-gang violence,” said Chicago police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan, who called the shooting retaliatory for a prior killing. “And we have some evidence to support that, and that’s the best possible motive at this time.”
Court records show that Merrill has at least six felony convictions. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a police officer and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Natalia, who was due to start second grade at Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts, was shot just after 7 p.m. Saturday in the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue, according to authorities.
Reached Monday afternoon by the Tribune, Natalia’s father, Nathan Wallace, said “that’s great news” about a suspect being in custody for his daughter’s killing. He said if the police can capture the others as well, “my daughter can rest in peace and justice (would) be served.”
Kamesha Maclin, left, wipes tears from her eyes as she sits with Monique Wallace during a vigil for their 7-year-old niece Natalia Wallace, who was shot in the head and killed in the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue July 5, 2020. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
A Tribune analysis of crime data in a wider window beginning Thursday that included the long weekend showed at least 90 people were shot, 18 of them fatally. Including Natalia, at least three of those killed were children, among 14 people under age 18 shot during the span.
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[ 7-year-old girl described as ‘very quiet and sweet’ is fatally shot on Chicago’s West Side ]
In remarks Monday morning at a separate press event, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown commented on this weekend’s violence and singled out the fatal shooting of Natalia and also a 14-year-old boy in the South Side’s Englewood community, a teen who was among four killed in that incident.
“We cannot allow this to be normalized in this city,” Brown said. “We cannot get used to hearing about children being gunned down in Chicago every weekend.”
He called the shootings Saturday painful tragedies. “There are no words, no words to describe this pain. Not anymore,” Brown said.
“That’s also, though, why none of us are giving up. Because every police district, every corner of this city, this is on all of us,” he said.
Brown also stuck to familiar themes in responding to the violence, as he has in the last few weeks, calling for “violent offenders” to be locked up longer and for Cook County’s electronic home-monitoring program to be revamped.
[ 8 shot, 4 fatally in Englewood shooting, police say ]
Lightfoot echoed some of those sentiments. She said the violence is “not unique” but she won’t “normalize” the gun violence and anguish.
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“We simply must fundamentally recommit ourselves to focusing on the root causes of the violence,” Lightfoot said, calling it “every bit a public health crisis” as COVID-19.
Lightfoot called for more spending on trauma support and jobs, as well as increased ties between law enforcement agencies, among other efforts to reduce violence.
Like former mayors, Lightfoot also denounced the number of guns on the streets as a significant cause of violence and criticized low bonds for violent offenders, which Brown also had mentioned.
After Natalia’s killing, her school released a statement, attributed to Natalia’s first grade teacher:
“Natalia was a very quiet and sweet little girl. She completed every assignment during class, got along with all of her peers, and colored the most precious pictures ever given to me. Natalia never hesitated to ask for clarity when needed. Sometimes, her quiet spirit gave her the strength to lead the reading lessons within her group, and she soared when it came to doing math. During e-learning, Natalia was always present and participating. At the end of each class session, she would type in the chat box, ‘I Love You.‘”
Natalia was a resident of Chatham on the South Side, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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She was on the sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and people got out and started shooting toward where she was, according to a police media notification.
Police said there was a second victim, a 32-year-old man, who self-transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the ankle and a graze wound to the leg.
The shooting Saturday follows the wounding Tuesday night of a 3-year-old girl in the West Englewood neighborhood minutes after a 15-year-old boy was shot blocks away, and after a 20-month-old boy and 10-year-old girl were killed in separate attacks the prior weekend. Two weeks ago, five children were fatally shot, including a 3-year-old boy.
Brown said an additional 1,200 cops were out this holiday weekend, 300 fewer than the same weekend last year. He said there weren’t as many because there were no special events in the city because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But despite trying to cut back on police overtime, Brown said, in the short term, CPD will likely have to spend more overtime to put even more officers in parts of the South and West sides being hit hard by violence.
“This is a very challenging area,” Brown said. “No job opportunities … There’s no health care system accessible to these people,” he said.
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“Policing is not a substitute for lack of services. Never has been. Never will be. So we can go from 1,200 to 2,400 officers. That is not going to be a substitute for blight and poverty. But it’s all we have now because Chicago police officers are the only people at this podium,” Brown told reporters at an announcement on training restarting at the department’s academy for recruits.
Brown also again criticized Cook County’s bail reform efforts, as he has in recent weeks.
“I just hope that the tragedies here these past three weekends bring us all to the table so that we can revamp the electronic monitoring program, find a way to hold violent offenders in jail longer,” Brown said, insisting he is trying to be “collaborative” instead of pointing the finger at other facets of the criminal justice system. “Chicago deserves us figuring this out.”
Asked about Brown’s comments, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office released a statement Monday.
“The Sheriff is committed to combating violence and has always believed individuals charged with gun-related or violent crimes should remain in jail while awaiting trial to ensure the safety of the public,” the statement from spokesman Matt Walberg said. “All decisions about bond amounts and conditions of bond — including which individuals are placed on electronic monitoring — rest solely with the judiciary.”
Brown on Monday offered little if any evidence that defendants freed from the Cook County Jail on electronic home monitoring were behind the violence. When asked about it, he said there was a person in a home, apparently at the scene of Natalia’s death, that was on home monitoring after being charged in a robbery. But Brown could not say if that person played any role in the shooting.


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Police chiefs and NAACP agree on a way to improve policing, but some activists say it falls far shor

Police chiefs and NAACP agree on a way to improve policing, but some activists say it falls far short

The Shared Principles started in part as a response to protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in suburban @ @ @ @ @ 2014 .
Further impetus was added with the police killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago @ @ @ @ @ the Shared Principles began when the NAACP and the chiefs held joint meetings around the @ @ @ @ @ attracted scores of community and police leaders to discuss how to go forward .
The @ @ @ @ @ Barack Obama ’ s Task Force on 21st Century Policing .

A man sits atop an SUV during a rally to remember Jemel Roberson on June 27, 2020, in Midlothian. Roberson was fatally shot by a Midlothian police officer while at work as a security guard in November of 2018. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
As recent protests against police brutality have highlighted deep divisions over the future of law enforcement in Illinois, a prominent civil rights group and top police officials have come together to promote a joint solution to help address the controversy.
To build trust between people of color and law enforcement, the Illinois NAACP State Conference and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police have been promoting a document they call the Ten Shared Principles. The agreement calls for valuing every life, treating everyone with respect, rejecting discrimination, and supporting community policing, diversity and de-escalation training.
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The two groups agreed on the principles in 2018, well before the current demonstrations, but prompted by many of the same concerns. Since then, nearly 200 police departments and law enforcement organizations across the state, including many in the suburbs but not Chicago, have adopted what its sponsors call a “historic” agreement.
But as nationwide protests continue in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, activists from Black Lives Matter and other groups have called for much stronger measures, such as defunding police. And even some who support the principles warn that the agreement won’t work without measures to enforce it.
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[ Read the 10 Shared Principles on relationship between law enforcement and communities in Illinois ]
The Shared Principles started in part as a response to protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in suburban Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Further impetus was added with the police killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago in 2014. Work on the Shared Principles began when the NAACP and the chiefs held joint meetings around the state called World Cafes that attracted scores of community and police leaders to discuss how to go forward. The principles also built on President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
About 40 departments and other groups have signed on this year, nearly half of them since the recent protests began. Recent adoptees include the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and the South Suburban Association of Chiefs of Police.
Though the principles contain no enforcement measures, officials say that many police policies have or will formalize the same ideas with disciplinary provisions.
The effort to reach consensus on policing objectives was a recognition that while controversies have often erupted over police killings in big cities, deaths of African Americans at the hands of white police officers have occurred sporadically statewide, including in Chicago’s suburbs.
In 2011, Darrin Hanna died one week after being beaten and shocked by police in North Chicago. In 2018, Decynthia Clements was shot and killed by police after charging them with knives after a standoff on the I-90 tollway in Elgin.
And in 2018, armed security guard Jemel Roberson, who was subduing a shooting suspect outside a bar in Robbins, was shot four times and killed by a Midlothian police officer. Each incident prompted numerous demonstrations and calls for repercussions. The North Chicago case led to one officer being fired and another suspended, the departure of the chief, and a $3 million settlement of a lawsuit over the death. No officers were disciplined in the other cases and no criminal charges were filed.
More generally, in 2018, an investigation by WBEZ and the Better Government Association found that of 113 shootings involving suburban police departments since 2005, no officers were charged criminally or even disciplined.
In response to such incidents, police and NAACP officials saw their agreement as a starting point for improving relations between the police and residents.
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Robert Moore, chair of criminal justice for the NAACP in Springfield, has been traveling the state with the chiefs to train departments on following the principles, and he believes it is making a difference.
“That agreement allows us to come to the table with the chiefs,” he said. “There are so many reforms that are needed. We’re not where we want to fully be, but we’re so far ahead of other states.”
The head of the chiefs association, Crystal Lake police Chief James Black, said the agreement reflects that police and residents both want their communities to be safe for everyone.
“It’s a great document, in my humble opinion,” he said. “We found police and communities of color want the same thing. There’s a misunderstanding about how we get to where we want to be.”
Some Black activists describe the Ten Shared Principles as well-intentioned but unenforceable. Regina Brent, founder and president of Unity Partnership in Naperville, regularly works with suburban police departments to resolve issues of race, but was not involved in this effort.
“We do not support the Ten Shared principles,” she said. “It says you should treat me like a citizen. It needs to go further. If it had teeth, we wouldn’t be out there marching.”
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Instead, she said, reformers should focus on policies that can be changed immediately by any mayor or police chief who’s willing. She called for further safeguards against the police use of chokeholds like that used on George Floyd, which generally are illegal in Illinois; comprehensive use of body cameras by police, which remains rare in the suburbs; and detailed statewide data on police misconduct.
Some protesters say the historic and ongoing nature of the problem has moved it far beyond the realm of mere agreements. Unlike the NAACP and Unity Partnership, which believe in working with police to bring about reform, some protest leaders say it’s time to look for radical alternatives to the police.
Ja’Mal Green, an activist and former mayoral candidate in Chicago, said it’s too late for agreements such as the Ten Shared Principles.
“Just saying they’ll commit to a policy doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “We’ve given them body cameras, Tasers, use of force policies, but they still use excessive force.”
“We’ve got to stop saying let’s reform the police — it keeps pouring money into a system that isn’t working,” he said. “We need to pour money into communities so they’re safe enough that we don’t need so much policing.”
Police chiefs welcomed proposals to increase funding for social services to help improve their communities and handle calls for service, but were alarmed at talk of defunding their departments.
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In Oak Park, police Chief LaDon Reynolds, whose department has adopted the Ten Shared Principles, said documents such as the Shared Princples are backed up by specific regulations controlling the use of force and other areas of concern.
While Oak Park had problems with complaints of biased policing in the past, Reynolds said, it worked to overcome them primarily through community policing, by having officers get to know and work with community members.
He noted that his department is reviewing its use-of-force policies, has a civilian advisory committee to oversee discipline, and its racial makeup generally reflects that of its diverse community.
While Reynolds called the Floyd incident a “horrific” murder, he cautioned against painting all police with the same brush, saying most want to serve their communities honorably.
“There are real issues with policing in America, without a doubt,” he said. “But that does not take away that there are good men and women in law enforcement of all ethnicities doing good work.”
Any agreement is only as good as its enforcement, said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois, which is involved in the federal consent decree aimed at reforming Chicago police operations. Recent crises, he said, have shown the need for social service agencies to handle some situations, rather than people with guns trained in the use of force.
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“Police have not been called to task when they’ve done wrong,” Yohnka said. “The real focus needs to be on enforcing accountability. What’s going to happen when somebody breaks the rules? That’s the critical piece here.”
rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
This story was revised to indicate the correct year that Laquan McDonald was killed.


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Daywatch: 2 kids killed in another violent Chicago weekend, tensions over Black Lives Matter face ma

Daywatch: 2 kids killed in another violent Chicago weekend, tensions over Black Lives Matter face masks at work and other things to know about to start your day

After three months of coronavirus-induced dormancy , the Leighton Criminal Court Building , known as “ the busiest courthouse in @ @ @ @ @ revving back up on Monday — and plowing through thousands of cases that have been @ @ @ @ @ reopening is not a full return to normal operations , and many speculated there will @ @ @ @ @ of significant movement for the cases that have stalled .

Want Daywatch delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. | Get the top Tribune stories of the day on your smart speaker | Here’s how to get the most out of your Tribune subscription | Got something to say? Join the conversation on our Facebook page
Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Illinois health officials Sunday reported 639 new known cases of COVID-19 and 6 additional confirmed fatalities, bringing state totals to 147,251 known cases and 7,020 confirmed deaths.
The state’s Northeast region — which includes Chicago and its suburbs — has a 4.2% positivity rate. Here’s where each region stands on key metrics for reopening.
Illinois is now in phase 4 of its coronavirus reopening plan. Here’s a guide to what’s allowed.
Fireworks explode while officer Rocco Alioto works the scene where a 7-year-old girl was fatally shot along with a 32-year-old man on the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue on July 4, 2020 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Despite the addition of some 1,200 Chicago police officers added to the streets this holiday weekend, Chicago continues to struggle with an especially harsh toll of violence that has continued to take the lives of young children. This marked the third consecutive week that young children have been killed in gun violence.
Mary Calderon, a doula who works with young moms, with one of the educational models she uses, on July 1, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
The coronavirus has amplified the challenges pregnant women face. And even more so for Black and Latina women, who might be disproportionately affected by COVID-19, according to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and who experience extra burdens of not only implicit racism within the health care industry, but also socioeconomic factors that can impact their ability to access care.
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At least 1,089 women in Illinois have had COVID-19 while pregnant, and of those cases, five have died, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data received Thursday.
South Side hospital failed to properly triage a pregnant woman who later died, Illinois regulators find
Chicago police Officer Julius Givens on July 2, 2020. Givens has informed the police union that he would like to terminate his membership. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Rookie Chicago cop Julius Givens’ open letter of protest to his union boss isn’t your typical act of defiance. It’s not intensely confrontational, quotes a poet laureate and invokes the name of Sir Robert Peel, a British prime minister from the 19th century.
Then comes the punch of the 13th paragraph: “I request, effective immediately or the earliest possible date to terminate my membership, all relations, and communication with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7. If I require any legal representation with regards to my duties as a police officer I will provide those services independent of Lodge 7 moving forward.”
Givens, 30, would be the only active officer in the city without union representation if he follows through with his intentions, laid out in an article published this past week at medium.com. Givens, who is Black, said he hopes his action will spur a conversation about what the next generation of policing should look like in Chicago.
The plaza outside of the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, which reopens on Monday. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
After three months of coronavirus-induced dormancy, the Leighton Criminal Court Building, known as “the busiest courthouse in America,” will start revving back up on Monday — and plowing through thousands of cases that have been frozen in place. The reopening is not a full return to normal operations, and many speculated there will be little in the way of significant movement for the cases that have stalled.
Starbucks' Black Lives Matter signs for the their new T-shirts. Starbucks announced Friday, June 12, 2020, that it is creating its own Black Lives Matter shirt that will soon be sent to more than 250,000 store partners for employees to wear if they choose. The move comes after the coffee chain reportedly banned employees from wearing Black Lives Matter gear. (Starbucks)
As companies declare support for the Black Lives Matter movement, some are not allowing employees to wear masks or other attire that express solidarity with the cause. Employees have pushed back against what they say is an attempt to silence them — staging protests at Whole Foods, denouncing Trader Joe’s on Twitter, calling for boycotts of Taco Bell and Starbucks — while their employers defend the restrictions as a matter of dress code.
Tensions could flare at more workplaces as they reopen and the mask-wearing forced by the pandemic collides with a national reckoning on racial injustice.


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Ten Shared Principles on relationship between law enforcement and communities in Illinois

The Illinois State Conference and Illinois Chiefs of Police Association in 2018 agreed on Ten Shared Principles “ regarding the @ @ @ @ @ the communities and people they serve in Illinois.
” The principles have been adopted by @ @ @ @ @ .

The Illinois State Conference and Illinois Chiefs of Police Association in 2018 agreed on Ten Shared Principles “regarding the relationship between law enforcement and the communities and people they serve in Illinois.” The principles have been adopted by nearly 200 police agencies statewide.
We value the life of every person and consider life to be the highest value.
All persons should be treated with dignity and respect. This is another foundational value.
We reject discrimination toward any person that is based on race, ethnicity, religion, color, nationality, immigrant status, sexual orientation, gender, disability or familial status.
We endorse the six pillars in the report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The first pillar is to build and rebuild trust through procedural justice, transparency, accountability, and honest recognition of past and present obstacles.
We endorse the four pillars of procedural justice, which are fairness, voice (i.e., an opportunity for citizens and police to believe they are heard), transparency and impartiality.
We endorse the values inherent in community policing, which includes community partnerships involving law enforcement, engagement of police officers with residents outside of interaction specific to enforcement of laws, and problem-solving that is collaborative, not one-sided.
We believe that developing strong ongoing relationships between law enforcement and communities of color at the leadership level and street level will be the keys to diminishing and eliminating racial tension.
We believe that law enforcement and community leaders have a mutual responsibility to encourage all citizens to gain a better understanding and knowledge of the law to assist them in their interactions with law enforcement officers.
We support diversity in police departments and in the law enforcement profession. Law enforcement and communities have a mutual responsibility and should work together to make a concerted effort to recruit diverse police departments.
We believe de-escalation training should be required to ensure the safety of community members and officers. We endorse using de-escalation tactics to reduce the potential for confrontations that endanger law enforcement officers and community members; and the principle that human life should be taken only as a last resort.
Source: https://www.ilchiefs.org/shared-principles


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Long imprisoned, man wins early release amid pandemic, but efforts to clear his name continue

“ I was framed , ” McDowell said that day .
“ Police know they framed me because when they @ @ @ @ @ victim .
… They placed me in the lineup .
I am talking about I @ @ @ @ @ knowledge of ( Mario ) Castro , his family .
I didn ’ t murder @ @ @ @ @ the jail ( is ) not going to make the family happy because the killer @ @ @ @ @ You all , I mean , I can ’ t , I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ .
I know I didn ’ t kill that man .
That is not my @ @ @ @ @ I have to say .
”

Antonio McDowell poses for a photo at Northwestern University on July 1, 2020, a week after being released after serving 23 years in prison. Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted McDowell's sentence amid the coronavirus pandemic after he filed an actual innocence petition for his 1997 murder conviction. In prison and now as a free man, McDowell participates in Northwestern’s Prison Education Program as a playwright. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Antonio McDowell had been injured in a drive-by shooting, so the 21-year-old thought he was accompanying Chicago police officers back to the station to try to identify his assailant.
Instead, he found himself under arrest for murder, then later convicted and sentenced to 103 years in prison.
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But now, nearly 23 years after the fateful night that he lost his freedom, McDowell is on a new, if unlikely path. He walked out of a state prison last month a free man eager to put his past behind him and committed to proving he was wrongfully convicted.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted McDowell’s sentence to time served June 22 in another round of executive clemency decisions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since March, the governor has either pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of 33 men and women convicted of crimes that date to 1978 and range from cannabis possession to murder.
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At least two of them, including McDowell, were convicted based on investigations of former Chicago Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who has been accused by more than four dozen people of manipulating witnesses, fabricating evidence and framing suspects in predominantly Hispanic West Side neighborhoods in the 1980s and 1990s.
In an emergency clemency petition to the governor in early April, McDowell’s legal team at the Exoneration Project in Chicago cited the mushrooming allegations against Guevara to bolster their argument that McDowell is innocent.
They also argued his continued confinement was akin to a death sentence given an autoimmune disorder that affects his ability to breathe. At least 13 Illinois inmates have died since March of COVID-19 complications, including 12 at Stateville Correctional Center, where McDowell was housed.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not object to his possible release, based on his medical condition, but prosecutors still maintain evidence points to his guilt.
Though Pritzker did not pardon McDowell, which would have vacated his murder conviction, the governor commuted his sentence to time served. McDowell was released one day later, returning to Chicago and the home of his waiting mother, with whom he has remained close.
Antonio McDowell poses for a photo at Northwestern University on July 1, 2020, a week after being released after serving 23 years in prison. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Now a 44-year-old grandfather, McDowell said he is eager to rebuild his life and relationships with his two daughters, who were 6 and nearly 3 when he went to prison. He hopes to find a job that allows him “to earn an honest income” and continue with his college education, a journey he began behind bars that he said has sustained him.
“Honestly, I put what happened to me behind me,” he told the Tribune. “Now I’m looking at what’s in front of me.”
From victim to suspect
McDowell was struggling in 1997.
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He grew up in Chicago’s tough Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side and admits he never dared to dream back then of lofty goals like a college education.
No one in his family ever graduated high school, he said. And he failed to complete even a month of classes.
At 21, McDowell was unemployed with two children. He had a juvenile record for a robbery he committed at 16, records show.
Then his life forever changed in April of that year.
Wearing a cast on his arm due to being shot about two weeks earlier, McDowell said he was looking through photos of alleged gang members to try to identify his assailant when he inexplicably went from victim to suspect and was placed in a lineup for an unsolved murder some seven months earlier.
On the afternoon of Dec. 21, 1996, 41-year-old Mario Castro had walked out of his garage into his backyard in Humboldt Park when he was fatally shot at close range. The assailant fled after a confrontation with the victim’s nephew, who was fired upon after rushing to his uncle’s aid but went uninjured.
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Detective Guevara investigated the crime.
Police theorized the murder was linked to a nearby robbery that took place about 25 minutes later, in which a woman said an armed assailant pointed a gun at her and repeatedly threatened to kill her before making off with her purse and car, abandoning the vehicle 2 miles away.
Police believed the perpetrator of both robberies lived in the neighborhood given the location of where the stolen car was found, but the case quickly grew cold. No arrests were made.
Seven months later, McDowell was shot in the hand during a drive-by shooting. His lawyers said it is unknown if he was the target or struck in the crossfire of random violence. Though he told police he did not see his shooter, McDowell accompanied them to look through gang photos at the Area 5 police station two weeks later on July 23, 1997, according to his clemency petition.
In his petition, McDowell alleges Guevara grew angry with him after he refused to identify the detective’s chosen suspect in the drive-by shooting. McDowell was then placed in a lineup himself.
Guevara arrested him for murder that night after two witnesses from Castro’s homicide and a third from the subsequent robbery identified him in the lineup, the petition states. Unbeknown to McDowell, they also identified him in earlier photo arrays that Guevara showed them days earlier.
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McDowell’s attorney, Anand Swaminathan, argues there is strong evidence of his client’s innocence. He said the photo arrays and in-person lineup were procedurally improper and highly suggestive. He noted eyewitness identification — especially seven months later — is often flawed and unreliable.
Swaminathan said McDowell had no connection to the victims or their neighborhood, and police lacked a confession or a shred of physical evidence linking him to the crimes.
McDowell was charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated vehicular hijacking and held until his trial in March 1999. The case against him was based solely on eyewitness testimony. At his trial, the three witnesses again identified him. Guevara also testified.
McDowell never took the stand. His assistant public defender argued it was a case of mistaken identity and McDowell, who was home babysitting earlier in the day and did not have a car, could not have physically reached the neighborhood so quickly. A friend served as an alibi witness.
Then-Cook County Judge Marcus Salone found McDowell guilty. At his July 26, 1999, sentencing hearing, McDowell apologized to Castro’s family for its loss, but he told the judge he was not responsible.
“I was framed,” McDowell said that day. “Police know they framed me because when they arrested me I was a victim. … They placed me in the lineup. I am talking about I ain’t have no knowledge of (Mario) Castro, his family. I didn’t murder him. Putting me under the jail (is) not going to make the family happy because the killer is still at large. You all, I mean, I can’t, I don’t even know what to say. I know I didn’t kill that man. That is not my M.O. That is all I have to say.”
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The judge sentenced him to 103 years in prison. With day-for-day credit, his first opportunity for release was July 2048.
Two decades later, McDowell said he still recalls standing before the judge at sentencing. He said absent from the courtroom gallery was his mother, Florine, who couldn’t bear to witness him be sent to prison.
“You can really see how uneducated I was at that time and the pain in (my) words,” he said. “I was confused. I always thought, ‘OK, I’ll be right out. I didn’t do that. These people know I didn’t do anything wrong.’ That was my naive way of thinking. I had a lot of faith in (the criminal justice system) and they let me down.”
But not everyone is convinced the wrong outcome was reached.
Ruth Morales-Santana, the victim in the carjacking, told the Tribune she vividly recalls the crime and is certain it was McDowell who robbed her. Then a single mother of four children out running an errand for her son’s birthday, she said that December afternoon was warm, with melting snow.
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Her assailant pointed a gun at her stomach and repeatedly threatened to kill her as she tried to negotiate with him to at least keep her identification. She envisioned her children growing up without her.
“It was him,” she said, “and he knows it.”
Canary in a coal mine?
McDowell would serve the first decade of his confinement at Menard Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in southern Illinois.
When asked how he coped with his lot in life, especially if innocent, his response reflects the harsh reality of his world before his arrest.
“I come from nothing,” he said. “I come from a place that’s hard already.”
As the years passed and his appeals to higher courts failed, McDowell said there were many times he lost hope.
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“There was a lot of pain and a lot of anger,” he said. “There’s things I still grapple with.”
His request for a transfer was granted in 2008, and by that summer corrections officials moved him to Stateville, near Joliet, closer to his family and with more educational programs for inmates.
By then, the allegations against Detective Guevara were swirling.
Dozens of people have accused him over the years of either pinning false murder cases on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for protection money or taking payments from gang members to change the outcomes of police lineups.
The cases against 20 defendants either collapsed or their convictions were tossed out, public records show. Federal juries in 2009 and 2018 awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts. Several other lawsuits are pending.
In case after case, Guevara refused to testify when asked under oath about the allegations. When forced to take the stand in 2017 in a case involving two men who accused him of abuse, he gave testimony so muddled that a judge accused him of “baldfaced lies” and said he had lost all credibility as a witness.
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Attempts to reach Guevara, 76, were unsuccessful. He has never been charged with wrongdoing. He retired in 2005 after a 29-year police career and drew a city pension of nearly $81,000 last year, records show.
Other imprisoned defendants connected to his work are pushing prosecutors to have their cases reheard. Foxx’s conviction integrity unit is conducting a “comprehensive review” of Guevara’s cases, an office spokeswoman said.
Swaminathan, who through the Exoneration Project is representing other clients connected to Guevara, said he hopes prosecutors will review the cases “with fresh eyes and will act swiftly where justice demands it.”
“There is no doubt that there are many men who remain locked up based on convictions that were obtained by Detective Guevara through false and fraudulent police work,” Swaminathan said. “There are innocent men who are languishing and suffering in prison and they need to get released.”
In a statement from the city’s legal department, officials said they stand firmly against police misconduct but, based on the unwavering identification from the carjacking victim, who said police did not coerce her, McDowell’s case is “deeply concerning.”
“Victims’ rights must be upheld despite any involvement by discredited officers, and the city will always work to protect those whose lives have been impacted by violent crimes, while honoring our duty to carefully and thoroughly investigate each case,” the statement read. “In our quest for justice we must always be sure not to fall into the trap of fitting facts into specific narratives — the truth must always be paramount.”
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A turning point
McDowell said 2018 was particularly difficult.
Two grandparents had died and a best friend was murdered. He grew anxious each time he called home to check in for fear there’d be more bad news.
McDowell said it was then that he decided to get his GED. He had earlier opportunities in prison, but he said never felt he was smart enough.
“I felt like for them, for those I lost, for those I love, I’m going to be a better person. I’m going to make it,” he said. “It was just something I felt I needed to do.”
His mother bought him books, which McDowell said he studied “front to back,” especially absorbing math. McDowell not only passed, he next was chosen as one of a select number of inmates for the Northwestern Prison Education Program, which offers college-level courses in cooperation with Oakton Community College.
His essay on why getting his GED was so important helped get him into the program.
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“It was something I really wanted because no one in my family has a GED,” he said. “No one in my family ever graduated out of high school. So I’m the first. That’s a proud moment.”
Of the Northwestern program, McDowell said being in a classroom made him “feel like a human again.”
“I learned that I’m better than I thought,” he said.
By then, his legal situation also had improved. Attorney Jennifer Bonjean was the first to take an interest in his case. Swaminathan and attorney Joshua Tepfer through the Exoneration Project more recently joined efforts, filing the emergency clemency request in April and reexamining his conviction.
Morales-Santana, who lives in Puerto Rico, told the Tribune a member of McDowell’s team later tracked her down, as have city officials, and she held firm with both that she correctly identified him. She said Guevara was professional and, “nobody told me to say it was (McDowell). I know it was him. ... I’m not a person who forgets.”
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Besides arguing actual innocence, and heavily citing the allegations against Guevara, the clemency petition said McDowell has sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disorder in which clusters of inflammatory cells collect in his body, resulting in scar tissue, impacting his breathing.
McDowell said some of the first men in Stateville who died related to the coronavirus were from his cell house. He complained about a lack of personal protective equipment in those first couple of months of the pandemic while he was in prison.
The petition to Pritzker also noted McDowell’s efforts to better himself in prison, including a lack of disciplinary tickets, his work history in the prison kitchen and his participation in educational programs. Northwestern faculty familiar with his efforts wrote letters of support included in the petition.
Based on his health, especially amid the pandemic, Foxx did not oppose his release. The Cook County state’s attorney did, though, object to the potential of him being pardoned.
“At this time, (the) state maintains that petitioner is guilty of the multiplicity of crimes of which he was convicted,” Foxx said in a letter to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
McDowell said he had faith he would someday be free again, but he was awash with emotion when he learned Pritzker commuted his sentence. His attorneys next plan to try to have his conviction vacated in court — something Morales-Santana finds troubling.
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“He did his time and I’m glad he’s doing well,” she said. “But I don’t like that they’re saying he’s innocent. The reason I’m over here in Puerto Rico with my kids, I was scared to live in Chicago. I couldn’t sleep. It was a nightmare.”
As he has for about 23 years, Antonio McDowell insists he is innocent. Two weeks after his release, he remains thankful and said he still feels like he did in that moment he found out he was going home. He savors the little things, like his first strawberry milkshake in decades.
And he’s back home with his mother. McDowell said the impoverished conditions of the West Side where he grew up are heartbreaking to see. He would like to find a way to help his community, though he isn’t sure how yet.
For now, he plans to continue working on his associate degree while attending Oakton Community College in the fall with the goal of achieving a four-year degree from Northwestern.
He still is working with his professors from the university’s prison program. On a recent summer day, McDowell was on the Evanston campus, its famous arch beckoning to new students within his sights.
Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner and Megan Crepeau contributed.
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cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-06--Illinois Gov. Pritzker condemns Kansas newspaper cartoon equating face mask order with Holocaust