chicagotribune--2020-08-10--Boy and man who tried to save him from drowning in Lake Michigan in Wisconsin both die

A 50-year-old man saw them struggling and jumped into the water to help .
Authorities say he rescued one boy @ @ @ @ @ .
But he and the other boy were both pulled underwater .

MILWAUKEE — A boy and the man who tried to save him in Lake Michigan have died while a another young swimmer was rescued.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says two 14-year-olds were caught in the lake's currents Saturday evening.
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A 50-year-old man saw them struggling and jumped into the water to help. Authorities say he rescued one boy who made it to shore. But he and the other boy were both pulled underwater.
The boy was pulled from the water by first responders in a boat. He died Saturday night. The man was also recovered and taken to the hospital were he died early Sunday.
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The other boy was taken to the hospital. There's no word on his condition.
The National Weather Service reported waves of 2 feet to 4 feet Saturday and the swim risk in Milwaukee County was considered moderate.


Looting in Chicago

Treja Kelley had been hesitant to come forward after witnessing the murder of her 17-year-old cousin .
But she found @ @ @ @ @ stand last year and helped secure a guilty verdict .
Her testimony , though , @ @ @ @ @ head , prosecutors said .
Just a few months after testifying , Kelley was shot @ @ @ @ @ not far from where her cousin had been slain .
She was 18 and pregnant @

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chicagotribune--2020-08-09--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened on Aug. 8-9 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

When it has come to getting a standardized test score during the onslaught of COVID-19 , fate has been cruel @ @ @ @ @ school seniors .
They weren ’ t able to take the SAT at their schools @ @ @ @ @ ACT sittings were canceled over the spring and summer after test sites , mostly schools @ @ @ @ @

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials on Sunday announced 1,382 new confirmed case of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths.
The numbers came after the statewide count surpassed 2,000 in Illinois for two straight days. The state has now reported 194,080 cases overall and 7,636 confirmed deaths.
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On Sunday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had fencing put up and police officers posted at entrances to Monroe Harbor, a day after she criticized a large beach party there.
Meanwhile, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday announced his administration is filing new emergency rules to require businesses to enforce mask requirements that include the possibility of fines up to $2,500.
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[ COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: A daily update on key metrics in your area ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more ]
Here’s what’s happening this weekend with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
Sunday
Pritzker urges public to embrace masks
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was joined by several medical experts Sunday afternoon to urge Illinoisans to mask up and help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
At a news conference at Northwestern’s Prentice Hospital, Pritzker called mask requirements and physical distancing during a pandemic “common sense,” noting the majority of Americans support a mask mandate, and that health professionals with whom he has spoken all count masking and distancing among the most effective ways to slow the virus’ spread.
”In the last few months, research has evolved from the early days of the coronavirus, when it was shown that wearing masks protected others you’re with,” Pritzker said. “Now, study after study after study has shown us that if you wear a mask, it protects you, too.”
Pritzker said the new emergency rules issued last week requiring businesses and schools to enforce mandatory face mask rules or face potential fines protects the public and treats businesses fairly. Read more here. — Morgan Greene
No pajama pants? In Springfield schools, students must adhere to dress code for remote learning.
Students in the capital of Illinois are not allowed to wear hats, bandannas, sunglasses, pajama pants or slippers in school buildings. And that dress code now extends to their bedrooms and kitchen tables.
“We don’t need students in pajamas and all those other things while on their Zoom conferences,” Jason Wind, the district’s director of student support, explained during an online board meeting of Springfield Public Schools this past week.
Along with the clothing requirements, the district’s remote learning guidelines mandate that students be “sitting up out of bed, preferably at a desk or table.”
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A district spokeswoman, Bree Hankins, said in a statement that the remote learning guidelines were developed collaboratively with teachers, administrators and parents, and that the dress code reflected what the students would be wearing when in school. Read more here. —The New York Times
Montrose Harbor blocked by police, fence after Mayor Lori Lightfoot shuts down large beach party
For months, memes have appeared to show Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot watching for crowds and threatening to close parts of the city if residents don’t abide orders and closures during the coronavirus pandemic.
But on Saturday, Lightfoot herself — not just a Photoshopped picture of her, like those used in such memes — apparently had a hand in breaking up a large gathering at Montrose Harbor, according to social media posts by the mayor and crime blog CWB Chicago.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Lightfoot on Saturday posted to Twitter an image of dozens of people engaging in what she called, “reckless behavior on Montrose Beach.”
“It’s called a pandemic, people,” said the mayor’s post, which included a picture of partygoers. “This reckless behavior on Montrose Beach is what will cause us to shut down the parks and lakefront. Don’t make us take steps backwards.”
In a follow-up tweet she confirmed she was there and seemed to suggest she had already ordered new fencing seen Sunday morning: “In case you were wondering, I stopped by to see for myself. It’s being addressed,” she wrote at 7:30 p.m., about 90 minutes after she posted a picture of the party.
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Stoking concerns that the mayor had followed through on threats to close the “parks and lakefront,” were additional images circulating on social media of police cars blocking a Montrose Harbor entrance. The Lakefront Trail also was blocked by police officers at Montrose Avenue and Lake Shore Drive Sunday morning. Read more here. —Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
US hits 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest of any country
With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.
Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.
But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.
“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions. ... They need a real lockdown.” Read more here. —Associated Press
Franciscan Health Hammond seeking volunteers for COVID-19 treatment study
Franciscan Health Hammond wants volunteers for a COVID-19 study it hopes could lead to a new treatment.
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The hospital is participating in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s study to test if an engineered antibody drug, called LY-CoV555, could neutralize the virus early in patients that only show mild symptoms, before the condition progresses to hospitalization.
Around 15 volunteers or more are needed at Franciscan in Hammond, Dr. Erica Kaufman West, a hospital infectious disease doctor said. Lilly’s study - called BLAZE-1 - is recruiting 400 volunteers in 24 sites nationwide, including another Franciscan hospital in Indianapolis. So far, about one-third total have signed up, she said. Read more here. —Meredeth Colias-Pete
Saturday
Coronavirus aid updates: Trump signs executive orders for $400-a-week unemployment benefit, deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments
Seizing the power of his podium and his pen, President Donald Trump on Saturday bypassed the nation’s lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a lower amount after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed.
At his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump signed executive orders to act where Congress hasn't. Not only has the pandemic undermined the economy and upended American lives, it has imperiled the president's November reelection.
Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak. However, his order called for up to $400 payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats miles apart.
Trump largely stayed on the sidelines during the administration’s negotiations with congressional leaders, leaving the talks on his side to chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
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Trump’s embrace of executive actions to sidestep Congress runs in sharp contrast to his criticism of former President Barack Obama’s use of executive orders on a more limited basis. And the president’s step-back from talks with Congress breaks with his self-assured negotiating skills.
Now, Trump, who has not spoken with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since last year, sought to play the role of election-year savior, with the $400 weekly assistance, as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments and the continuation of a freeze on some evictions during the crisis.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2,190 new known COVID-19 cases, 18 additional deaths
For the second time in more than two months — and the second day in a row — the statewide count of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed 2,000 in Illinois.
Public health officials said Saturday 2,190 new cases were logged during the last 24-hour period, and another 18 people with COVID-19 had died. Before Friday, when 2,084 new cases were reported, the last time the confirmed case number surpassed 2,000 was May 24, when the state reported 2,508 cases.
The new daily tally brings the statewide count of known cases to 192,698. There have been 7,631 deaths of people with COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began earlier this year.
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—Chicago Tribune staff
Friday
Chicago Public Schools delays release of remote learning plan but CEO promises more live instruction and accountability
Chicago Public Schools on Friday delayed the release of its plan for remote learning in the fall, days after the district announced it would start the new school year virtually rather than with the hybrid reopening model it first proposed.
The district now plans to issue its final reopening framework “in the days ahead,” according to an email to families Friday.
“We believe an improved remote learning model that engages students for the full school day is the right way to begin the new school year based on both the evolving public health situation and feedback from our families,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson and Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said in the email. “... We are taking additional time to work with school leaders and labor partners to ensure the plan we finalize for the new school year is thorough and thoughtful, and we will be sharing those guidelines as soon as they are ready.”
Chicago Teachers Union leaders are demanding the district include members as equal partners in improving on how remote learning went in the spring. After the news that CPS would not be releasing its plan Friday, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates tweeted about the tentative agreement on distance learning negotiated between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the United Teachers Los Angeles.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
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From hybrid model to remote learning: Inside Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Public Schools’ fall pivot
In the days and hours before she gave up on in-school learning at Chicago Public Schools this fall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was getting squeezed from the outside and the inside.
Coronavirus cases continued their seemingly implacable rise despite her constant entreaties to residents to wear masks and follow social distancing rules.
Her political nemeses in the Chicago Teachers Union repeatedly accused Lightfoot of putting students and teachers at risk, even as the rumblings about an impending strike vote grew louder.
Read more here. —John Byrne and Gregory Pratt


chicagotribune--2020-08-11--Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. ‘I don’t believe it’

Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. ‘I don’t believe it’s fair.’

“ We have so many good people , so many wonderful people in this neighborhood , and we just hope @ @ @ @ @ recognized , ” said Ald .
Stephanie Coleman , 16th .
“ I don ’ @ @ @ @ @ ( about the looting ) started .
It ’ s an easy assumption to make @ @ @ @ @ making those connections , you have to be really careful because that ’ s reflecting @ @ @ @ @ neighborhood .
And in this case , I don ’ t believe it ’ s @ @ @

Officers stand near crime scene tape after an argument erupted between police and residents after Latrell Allen was shot three times by CPD officers after he allegedly fired several rounds at two officers near the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood on Aug. 9, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Joyce Brown had just left the University of Chicago Medical Center, joyful her grandson would recover from being shot, when she heard about the looting downtown early Monday.
“We saw it on the news and I said, ‘What are they looting for?’ " said Brown, 65. It didn’t take long to figure out.
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Her 20-year-old grandson Latrell Allen had been shot several times by police a day earlier after allegedly pointing a gun at officers near his home in Englewood. “I said to my husband, Jimmie, ‘I believe they did the looting because of what happened to Latrell.”
While the family has doubts about the police version of the shooting, Brown said she cannot condone the looting that left 13 police officers injured, two people shot, more than 100 arrested and stores up and down the Magnificent Mile trashed — and once again cast a harsh light on a South Side community that has been making gains in its struggles against poverty and violence.
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"I don't agree with the looting because that's just an excuse to get what they want," Brown said. "That was wrong about the looting, but the same way they feel about looting, I feel about our grandson."
Latricsa Allen reacts as she finds her son's shoes in the vacant lot where she and neighbor Tenisha Caldwell, left, believe the 20-year-old man was shot by Chicago police, Aug. 10, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
While long-simmering distrust of police and growing tensions from the pandemic may have helped fueled the looting, Brown insisted “it’s still no excuse.”
The alderman who represents Englewood fears its residents will now be unfairly tarnished as looters.
“We have so many good people, so many wonderful people in this neighborhood, and we just hope that all that energy gets recognized,” said Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th. “I don’t know how that narrative (about the looting) started. It’s an easy assumption to make, but when you start making those connections, you have to be really careful because that’s reflecting on the people in this neighborhood. And in this case, I don’t believe it’s fair.”
‘This is ridiculous’
Chicago police say social media posts in the hours after Allen was shot urged people to go out and loot. But they have not produced the posts or said how they know they were in response to Allen’s shooting.
What is certain, however, is that the shooting of Allen led to tense moments that stretched into Sunday night.
An officer with a rifle walks past residents at the scene of a police-involved shooting near the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood on Aug. 9, 2020, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Officers, called about a man with a gun, spotted Allen near Moran Park in the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue around 2:30 p.m. The officers approached the man, who matched a description, but he ran off, police said.
As he ran toward his home, police say Allen turned and fired at the officers, who returned fire and hit him five times. Officials said a gun was found at the scene. A crowd gathered as a story circulated on the block that police had shot a 15-year-old. Extra officers were called in to form a line around investigators.
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By 5:30 p.m., the outer edge of streets near the crime scene were filled with cars trying to find ways to get around the large police response that included uniformed and SWAT officers and a police command van. The streets were full of adults, young and old, though hardly any children were walking about. Some families watched the scene from the safe distance of their own front yards.
It was hot, so hot and humid that many of the young men listening to music through loudspeakers at Moran Park had shed their T-shirts. There was a scuffle with police, and one officer was hit with pepper spray and a second suffered a minor shoulder injury. A police car window was shattered by a brick, and officers cordoned off streets in nearly every direction until the crowd cooled off.
Officers stand near crime scene tape after an argument erupted between police and residents at the scene of a police-involved shooting near the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood on Aug. 9, 2020, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
In front of a liquor store at 57th and Racine, the regulars — mostly older men — excitedly chatted about the day’s events. At the edge of police tape on Aberdeen, where dozens of uniformed cops stood at attention, two elderly women stood waiting for some news.
"This is ridiculous, this going on in our neighborhood," one gray-haired woman said aloud. The woman next to her appeared to be livestreaming the scene.
Doubts and accusations
Stories continued swirling among the crowd: Police had shot a teenager and it was captured on cellphone video, but officers had taken it away. As the sun set, one of the men who appeared to be agitating the crowd began yelling expletives and taunts. Even hours after the shooting, residents circled the most active blocks looking for details about the child who had been shot.
The neighbors’ doubts continued Monday even as Mayor Lori Lightfoot decried the “abject criminal behavior, pure and simple” of looters that was somehow connected to their community.
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Tenisha Caldwell repeated those doubts as she talked to Allen’s mother, Latricsa, outside her Aberdeen Street home Monday afternoon.
Caldwell said she watched from her front porch as an officer fired at Allen. She told Latricsa Allen that her son tried to give up before he was shot. Allen said her son told her from his hospital bed that he didn’t have a gun, though police posted a photo of a gun they said they found at the scene.
Latricsa Allen stands Aug. 10, 2020, in the vacant lot where she believes her 20-year-old son was shot by Chicago police. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The family home sits in what residents call a rough pocket of Englewood that can quickly go from quiet to loud. The area between Morgan and Racine is largely black, but has a number of Hispanic and white residents living on blocks that mix well-kept single-family homes with boarded-up structures and vacant lots.
On Monday, the block where the shooting occurred was mostly quiet, a day after a crush of police officers and vehicles descended on the neighborhood while news helicopters hovered overhead.
Allen said her sons adopted dangerous friends after moving to Englewood years ago.
“When they got here, they had to run with a rougher crowd,” she said. “We in Englewood. … They can’t be no punks. If they was, they was gonna get beat up every day.”
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She admitted that her eldest son, the father of a young daughter, posted photos on social media posing with guns, but insisted it was just posturing.
“He’s a good guy, he’s a charmer,” Allen said, laughing. “I always told him, ‘You’re going to be a lawyer because you’re always going to get your point across. He was always very smart. When I was in school, he was helping me with my calculus homework.”
Go Green on Racine
Rami Nashashibi sees hope in Englewood, despite the events of the last few days.
He’s executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, an organization that helped create the “Go Green on Racine” development, which is aiming to transform the corner of 63rd and Racine by adding a Fresh Market cooperative, mixed-used housing and business incubator — and converting a vacant school into a recycling enterprise.
The goal of Go Green on Racine is to add permanent living-wage jobs as well as training and certification for young people and those returning from prison. Centered at an intersection that connects the east and west parts of Englewood, the project is being built around the reopening of the Racine Green-Line station.
“That is the Englewood we see,” Nashashibi said. “And it is beyond tragic that when we see these incidents happen … the people, the community gets conflated with the most unfortunately destructive responses to collective pain and outrage, rather than be associated with the good people who are working every day to radically reimagine what is possible.”
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For decades, activists and residents in Englewood have worked to improve the neighborhood and reduce violence, only to see it spring back as it has this summer, a stark reminder that solutions to Chicago’s entrenched gun violence require deep and sustained investment to address decades of racist policies in Chicago’s South and West sides.
Asiaha Butler, a longtime Englewood resident, has been at the forefront of this effort, including as executive director of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, a partner in the Go Green on Racine project.
Over the weekend, she and other Englewood residents and arts organizations went to a shuttered business and turned it into a pop-up arts event for the entire community.
On social media, organizers described turning the longtime vacant store into a place of “beauty, visual healing & envisioning.”
Butler, reached Monday, said she believes the standoff with police that happened after the shooting provided “just another opportunity for folks to take advantage.”
She is not sure that all the looters were from Englewood and, like Nashashibi, said there is a lot of good happening in the neighborhood. “It is really disheartening if this is being blamed on a whole community that has fought so hard for justice and peace,” Butler said.


chicagotribune--2020-08-11--Daywatch: How a long night of unrest followed a police shooting, a derecho rips through the area and

Daywatch: How a long night of unrest followed a police shooting, a derecho rips through the area and an Englewood activist goes viral

Social media stardom took Joseph Williams by surprise .
The South Side community activist doesn ’ t even have a @ @ @ @ @ college student ’ s video of Williams talking about how he and other local volunteers @ @ @ @ @ of the police shooting Sunday in Englewood has garnered more than 125,000 views , with @ @ @ @ @ man right here ” and “ If you want to know what ’ s happened @ @ @ @ @ a great eye witness .
”

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Windows shattered by looters at Timberland at Michigan Avenue on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Following a police shooting in Englewood, a caravan of cars headed to the Loop for an early morning looting spree on Monday that marked the worst night of unrest in Chicago since the police brutality protests of late May boiled into violence.
As they had in May, thousands of people flocked to the Magnificent Mile and its surrounding blocks. They smashed in store windows that had been repaired months earlier. They threw large rocks at squad cars and bottles at officers. “F--- 12” was written next to spots that had been scrubbed clean of previous tags.
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Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. ‘I don’t believe it’s fair.’
Police shooting of Englewood man reignites political debate and looting as Mag Mile trashed, 13 cops injured, 2 people shot
Neighbors with a hand saw clear a tree blocking Kedzie Avenue in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020, after a large storm passed through the city. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
High winds and hard rain swept through the Chicago area Monday, ripping off roofs, crashing trees to the ground and causing widespread power outages, but officials said the area generally appeared to have dodged dire warnings of tornadoes and golf-ball-size hail.
In this file photo, Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at a news conference on Aug. 5, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
While the lasting images of the chaotic night will be looters stepping through shattered windows of Louis Vuitton and Nordstrom with armloads of clothes, the political fallout from yet another high-profile debacle could linger. Recent spikes in city violence coupled with unchecked looting could provoke criticism that Lightfoot has lost control of the city.
State’s Attorney Kim Foxx bristles at insinuation her office’s handling of earlier cases emboldened looters
Students return to Notre Dame's campus in South Bend, Indiana, for the fall semester. Classes began Aug. 10, 2020. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune)
Less than a week after the University of Notre Dame opened its dorms, a returning student tested positive for COVID-19 and six close contacts are under quarantine, despite the school’s extensive efforts to thwart the virus from reaching campus.
South Side community activist Joseph Williams at 56th and Aberdeen streets on Aug. 10, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Social media stardom took Joseph Williams by surprise. The South Side community activist doesn’t even have a Twitter account. But a college student’s video of Williams talking about how he and other local volunteers defused tensions at the site of the police shooting Sunday in Englewood has garnered more than 125,000 views, with comments such as “Good man right here” and “If you want to know what’s happened in Chicago, here is a great eye witness.”


chicagotribune--2020-08-11--Woman killed in Near North hit and run, police say

The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. in the 0-100 block of East Hubbard Street , police said .
A 55-year-old @ @ @ @ @ the street when she was hit by the SUV and dragged about half a block @ @

Police work the scene where a woman was killed after being struck by a vehicle on Hubbard Street late Aug. 10, 2020, in Chicago. The driver fled the scene. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Zoraleigh Ryan was just steps away from safety.
She didn’t like walking down Hubbard Street with her daughter late Monday night, so she decided to duck into a hotel and call for a ride. They were crossing Hubbard, about to enter the Courtyard Marriott, when they heard the screech of tires and saw a silver Ford Explorer racing straight for them.
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Ryan was hit first, then her 20-year-old daughter. The SUV stopped and the driver got out, standing about 10 feet away as a bystander rushed to tend to the women. Then he got back into the SUV, circled the block and came at them again, according to police and prosecutors.
The bystander was able to pull the daughter clear, but the mother was struck again and dragged down the block. She died at the scene. The SUV driver sped off, crashing into barricades as he eluded police, but he was arrested later in the night when he went to police and claimed the Explorer had been carjacked.
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Edgar Roman, 25, appeared in court Wednesday charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. While Roman finally admitted to police that he hit the women, prosecutors gave no motive for the brutal attack as he was ordered held on $2 million bond.
Edgar Roman (Chicago Police Department)
Ryan, 55, and her daughter had just finished their dinner at Chicago Cut Steakhouse about 10:15 p.m. Monday and began walking back to their hotel, prosecutors said. They wanted to stop at a 7-Eleven on the way, but it was closed because of looting damage. They decided to head for the Marriott and call for an Uber ride.
Roman was on State Street nearby, prosecutors said. As the women crossed Hubbard, he took off, made a U-turn and hit Ryan and her daughter, prosecutors said. Ryan was tossed against the curb, but was talking and able to tell her daughter and a bystander where she was injured.
Roman drove a few car lengths away and stopped. The daughter told the bystander to get a picture of Roman’s license plate number, but as he walked toward the SUV, Roman jumped into his car, sped down Hubbard and came back, engine revving as he headed for the women again, prosecutors said.
Roman ran over Ryan, dragging her body as the car accelerated over pylons on State Street, prosecutors said. The SUV dragged Ryan for about half a block, then ran over her again, prosecutors said. The daughter and bystander ran up to Ryan and held her head, but she “was no longer breathing.”
Roman apparently went around the block and drove north on State Street yet again — close enough for a witness to make eye contact with him, prosecutors said. He drove off and returned yet another time, at which point police were arriving and the witness pointed out Roman’s SUV.
Police saw the Explorer “driving erratically” on Grand Avenue not long afterward. They tried to pull it over, but Roman drove through a construction barricade, then got stuck trying to drive through a second barricade, prosecutors said.
The SUV hit the barricades so hard, the front hood fell off, according to police.
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Officers got out of their car with weapons drawn, but Roman made a three-point turn and escaped, prosecutors said. About 11:20 p.m., Roman entered the Albany Park District Station and told police he had been carjacked, prosecutors said. The SUV was found, “heavily damaged,” not far away.
Roman was arrested and told police he was carjacked by two armed men who forced him to drive around at gunpoint, prosecutors said. He ultimately admitted that he hit the two women. The entire incident was caught on police cameras and surveillance video from buildings on Hubbard Street, prosecutors said.
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Ryan was pronounced dead on the scene. Her daughter was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and released. Both are from Chandler, Arizona, though Ryan apparently has ties to the Chicago area, according to her Facebook page.
Ryan’s granddaughter told a television station in Phoenix that her grandmother was “just so sweet, doesn’t hurt anyone. She always makes sure everyone’s good before herself.”
“A decent enough human who felt bad when he hit her would have gone back and got out the car. ‘Oh my gosh, are you OK?’ No, but he hit her again to make sure that she was dead,” Angelina Adams told KPNX. “She didn’t deserve it. ... Now my only grandma is gone.”
Preliminary info: Officers trying to find a silver Ford Explorer that hit a woman at State/Hubbard #ChicagoScanner pic.twitter.com/GXDobxiHg8 — Paige Fry (@paigexfry) August 11, 2020
pfry@chicagotribune.com
rsobol@chicagotribune.com
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mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com