Latest news with #ChicagoPoliceDepartment
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Neighborhood ties still propel violence in a changing Cabrini-Green
Julia Tate was headed to bed a few weeks ago when her daughter burst into their rowhouse screaming. Tate's cousin, Devon LaSalle, had been shot. The family had urged LaSalle to not come around the neighborhood so much, but he grew up in a now-closed part of the Cabrini-Green rowhouses. He still spent a lot of time there in spite of how much had changed since he was a kid on Mohawk Street. At 41, LaSalle was one of many people who stuck around the rowhouses even as development exploded around the now-vacant lots where the infamous high-rises once stood. Old relationships persisted too, for better or worse. When LaSalle and another man were killed days apart on the same block in what's left of the original public housing development, authorities said both had known their alleged shooters for years. It's been two decades since there were slayings so close together in the Cabrini-Green rowhouses, a patch of 146 public housing units ringed by new construction in the well-heeled River North area. Chicago Police Department sources and neighborhood violence interrupters say the killings likely came from personal history and were not tied to wider gang conflicts. And they came at a time when a leader with his own links to Cabrini-Green is seeking to run the Chicago Housing Authority. Now-former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., who stepped down from his City Council spot while angling for the post, grew up there and has long decried people's tendency to hang out in their old neighborhoods, Sue Popkin, a researcher who has tracked the impact of the CHA's Plan for Transformation across a number of now-demolished housing complexes, including Cabrini, said old residents and people with ties to the developments keep coming back and maintain social lives in their old neighborhoods long after they've moved away. She offered another CHA development, the Ida B. Wells Homes, as an example. It took years for the homes to be dismantled, she said — 'but until it was entirely gone,' former residents returned. 'People go back to places after disasters,' Popkin said. 'You can't get people to move away from the edge of the ocean, even after there's a flood. There's a very powerful pull of home.' That pull was true for Devon LaSalle, his family said. He came back often to spend time with his girlfriend and his cousins, who are Cabrini residents. LaSalle made an excellent plate of Spanish rice, they said, and would set up in a nearby park to cook and sell plates with a few friends. He had a lot of history on those blocks. Court records show he was arrested last year and charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm after he allegedly fired a gun down Cambridge Avenue into a group of people. That case was still pending at the time of his death. More recently, LaSalle had started working as one of 21 peacekeepers through the organization Near North 3.6.5, and meant to use his own close street relationships around the neighborhood to prevent further violence. The group's leader, the Rev. Randall K. Blakey, said LaSalle had been considered 'one of the best and most promising' men to work with the program, which started in April of this year. He had not been on duty the night he was shot, Blakey said. Just after midnight on July 13, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Pekara said, LaSalle spoke to a man, Maurice Timms, briefly in one of the courtyards that separate the banks of rowhouses. After LaSalle turned away, Timms allegedly shot him once before he approached and fired again. A citizen called 911 a few hours after the shooting to report that Timms had returned to the area and he was asleep in a nearby pickup truck, Pekara said. Officers arrested Timms after a group of residents identified him as the alleged shooter, according to police records. Eight days earlier, 46-year-old Darrin Carter was killed about 50 yards down the block, authorities said. Obbie Sanders allegedly approached Carter as he sat in his car, took out a gun and shot him multiple times. Carter then sought help from a nearby squad car before he lost consciousness, Pekara said. Sanders — who wears leg braces and uses a cane to walk because he's been shot so many times — was allegedly captured on surveillance video fleeing the shooting scene, and police arrested him after he crashed a car near Wacker and DuSable Lake Shore drives. Both Sanders and Timms had been in the neighborhood's social mix days or weeks before the slayings, Pekara said. LaSalle's father, Ralph LaSalle, has been trying to think what could have pushed someone to allegedly 'execute' his son, particularly someone who they'd all known personally. 'That guy, I knew him,' he said of Timms. 'He called me 'Pops.' I wouldn't have figured he would do (anything) like that.' Now 64, the elder LaSalle spent 10 years in prison as a young man after he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. He has thought about the man he killed decades ago often over the last several weeks. 'The pain I'm feeling, now I know what his parents went through and how they felt,' he said. He doesn't plan to return to Cabrini-Green ever again. Burnett said the killings highlight issues the area has faced for years, even as the area has seen crime plummet and development take off around what's left of the rowhouses. A native of the Cabrini-Green rowhomes, Burnett may soon assume control of the CHA this summer. He said former residents of the rowhouses often return to the area after moving away or being released from prison, reigniting old conflicts. 'All these outside folks coming to the neighborhood, I think it's a detriment to the neighborhood,' Burnett said. 'It's hard to stop those incidents when folks are drinking or getting high and they get into it.' His comments largely echoed those he made five years ago when the killing of 9-year-old Janari Ricks jarred the city. Then, too, Burnett called for nonresidents to keep out of the rowhouses and 'do dirt' elsewhere. Residents of Cabrini-Green were critical in helping CPD officers find a suspect in that case, too, police officials said at the time. One man was charged with murder in the boy's death, and court records show that case is still pending. Janari's mother later filed a lawsuit against CHA, the security firm that patrolled the rowhouses and the property management company. That lawsuit, settled in 2024 for $7 million, alleged that the shooter who killed Janari was well-known in the neighborhood as a violent person, as was his intended target. The target of the shooting, it was alleged, was included on a CHA 'exclusion list' of people who were not to be allowed within the rowhouses. Burnett said CHA could do more to ensure that only those named on a lease are residing in a unit, though he said he couldn't say whether rules related to the list need to be strengthened. 'We need to check these places,' Burnett said. 'We've got a lot of folks harboring in apartments that (aren't) supposed to be there.' The CHA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Burnett told the Tribune that fostering a sense of community and respect for current residents would help deter behavior that can lead to violence. 'So I think the challenge is, one, the people in the neighborhood who may be related to these folks don't demand respect for their houses,' Burnett said. 'Your cousins, your brother, your baby's daddy, you don't demand that they respect your neighborhood.' In a statement, a CHA spokesperson said that all public housing residents needed to adhere to the rules laid out in their leases. According to the statement, the agency 'works hard not to perpetuate stigma for past, present, or future public housing residents' and is making it a priority to offer public gathering spaces where people with ties to the area can return and celebrate their history there. The intersection of Cleveland and Oak streets is known as Dantrell Davis Way, in memory of the 7-year-old boy slain by a sniper's bullet in 1992 as he walked to school through the high-rises with his mother. Scores of children were shot within the Cabrini-Green high-rises, and Dantrell's death catalyzed momentum for the structures' eventual demolition, which researchers like Popkin found led to dramatic dips in violent crime. Along the west side of Cleveland is a vacant lot, still owned by the CHA, where Dantrell's former school once stood. To the north, a new apartment building is under construction. A set of cubic gray and white rowhomes stand on the east side of the street behind a black fence, where people on a recent morning were watering their lawns and walking their dogs. South of Oak Street stand blocks of boarded-up rowhomes and the 800 block of North Cambridge Avenue. People lined the street on a recent afternoon, chatting in twos and threes as they leaned on cars and against fences. A teenage boy rode a motorbike up and down the block, revving the engine every time he turned around. Rodnell Dennis stood at the far end of her block with his arms folded. A group of kids rounding the corner stopped for hugs and fist bumps before scattering into several rowhouses up and down Cambridge. Others dressed in swim gear waited on the steps or hurtled back and forth across the street, where a fence blocked off more boarded-up units. Dennis, 46, grew up in the high-rises and spent 20 years behind bars before he was paroled in 2012. He recalled finding a dramatically different Cabrini-Green upon his return — 146 of the original rowhouses surrounded by new construction. A CHA spokesperson said the agency had erected 4,000 units of public housing around the neighborhood since 2000. Another 4,000 units still planned for around the area will house people with a range of incomes, as part of the CHA's 'Cabrini Now' plan. The agency's ombudsman lets residents living in mixed-income communities offer feedback and voice concerns with community-building, a spokesperson said, and CHA works with several organizations in the Near North Side area on events where residents can get to know one another. But for Dennis, who now works as a peacekeeper through Near North 3.6.5, the distance between the old neighbors and the new feels vast. 'They don't know us,' he said. 'They just know the stories they've heard about us. They form opinions that have no relevance to who we are.' Dennis, who pleaded guilty to the murder of a 9-year-old boy when he was just 13, said he had come a long way from contributing to the violence that gave Cabrini-Green its notoriety. 'It goes to show you a level of growth from then to now,' he said. But he said it's hard to impress that on people who avoid the rowhouses despite living so close by. 'How do you communicate with people who live 15 feet from your front door but don't want to walk through your neighborhood?' he asked. Just behind Dennis, Julia Tate's rowhouse still had stuffed animals and a wilted flower from LaSalle's memorial gathering next to the front door. He left behind 14 children and had just welcomed his first grandchild, relatives said. On Wednesday afternoon, Tate's air conditioning was blasting and the blinds were drawn to keep out the start of the latest heat wave. Her phone rang every few minutes with relatives calling about funeral arrangements. Now 56, Tate has lived in the rowhouses all her life, on Iowa and Mohawk streets and now in a unit on the southern edge of the neighborhood. She remembers her mom growing cucumbers and cantaloupe out front, trips to Rainbo Roller Rink in the Uptown neighborhood and singing in the Sunshine Gospel Choir. Tate mentioned the 1970 murders of two police officers in nearby Seward Park as an example of the kind of violence that gave the housing projects their notoriety. Cabrini-Green 'had its day,' in her words. But the rowhouses had been another story. 'This area was always a safe haven for people,' she said. 'We had a childhood life, even though things might have been happening during the time when we were growing up.' People come back to the rowhomes because that's what's left, but also because they were considered a less risky place to be, she said. 'The people that come down here now are the people that used to be in the high-rises,' Tate said. And while crime has dropped sharply in the area since those towers were demolished, Tate feels that kids growing up in the last of the rowhouses today don't have as much access to the kind of programs that sprang up to help kids who lived in the high-rises. Some anti-violence workers said the new development in the area has actually made it harder to secure funding. City and state dollars often are allocated based on median-income in a particular ZIP code, making kids from struggling families less likely to stand out on paper in a wealthier zone. A CHA spokesperson said in a statement that the agency was always looking for ways to offer more options for youth activities. Currently, organizations like After School Matters and By the Hand Club for Kids run no- or low-cost programming for families in the area along with the Chicago Park District. Stacie Wade, LaSalle's second cousin who pounded up the stairs screaming the night he was killed, remembers programs from her youth in the rowhouses. Now 31, Wade doesn't recall worrying about shootings growing up. 'I used to like it down here,' she said. But LaSalle was like an older brother to her, and his death has made her reconsider the neighborhood where he spent so much time and she's lived most of her life. He was with people he trusted when he came back, she said. And still he was taken away.
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Ald. Debra Silverstein: Report shows a stunning rise in antisemitism in Chicago. The mayor needs to do better.
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations, or CCHR, just released its annual report on hate crimes and incidents in Chicago, which showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes rose a stunning 58% last year. Antisemitism accounted for more than 37% of all hate crimes reported to the Chicago Police Department in 2024. Jewish Chicagoans make up only 3% of the city's total population, yet we were the target of more than a third of all the hate crimes reported in the entire city. This isn't a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Anti-Jewish hate crimes are up sharply across the nation. Notable and shocking examples include the killing of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, the firebombing attack on rallygoers in Colorado who were raising awareness about the Israeli hostages and the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence in Pennsylvania. Chicago was also rocked last year by an antisemitic terrorist attack in my own West Ridge community. An Orthodox man was shot in the shoulder while walking to synagogue on Shabbat. The victim was dressed in traditional Jewish garb, and he was only saved because his attacker's gun jammed. Police investigations revealed the shooter was specifically targeting Jewish individuals and institutions. Other hateful incidents have been happening across the city, including the painting of swastikas in Little Village and antisemitic graffiti in Hyde Park, and the placement of anti-Jewish cards on car windows in multiple wards. The incidents in CCHR's report have affected communities across Chicago. In response to this disturbing report, Mayor Brandon Johnson is finally starting to pay attention. He has authorized CCHR to convene public hearings on the rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes in Chicago, echoing a call I made last month with the support of the majority of the City Council. I fear this is too little, too late. As alderman of the 50th Ward, home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community in the city of Chicago, I have been raising the alarm about rising antisemitism for years. I hear daily from my community about antisemitic graffiti outside synagogues and the harassing of residents who are visibly Jewish on our streets. The response from City Hall has been anemic at best and often openly hostile to the concerns and fears of the Jewish community. Johnson has made it clear that the safety of Chicago's Jews takes a back seat to his progressive goals, and I worry how receptive he will be to making actual changes in response to the findings of these hearings. I am pleased that the hearings, which will be held in September, will be convened by CCHR. Its members have been tremendous allies to the Jewish community and to vulnerable communities across Chicago. I trust Commissioner Nancy Andrade to preside over fair and balanced hearings and to hear from voices that represent the vast majority of Chicago's Jewish community — even from groups that have feuded with Johnson in the past — including the Jewish United Fund, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Simon Wiesenthal Center. Jay Tcath: The phrase 'Free Palestine' is freeing no one, but it is killing some of usHowever, I have concerns about whether the mayor's office will allow CCHR to develop an accurate report that reflects the genuine fears of Chicago's Jewish community, especially if the hearings reveal that the mayor's progressive allies have contributed to the antisemitic environment in the city. The CCHR hate crimes report indicates that the rise in antisemitism in Chicago is fueled by misguided reactions to the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic people around the world have been using the war as a pretext to spew anti-Jewish hate under the cover of anti-Zionism, as if shooting at Jews in Chicago somehow makes Palestinians in Gaza safer. Much of this rhetoric in Chicago has come from the mayor's progressive allies and at events that the mayor has either praised or supported, such as the college encampments, Chicago Public Schools walkouts and protests that call to 'globalize the intifada.' How will City Hall react if Jewish CPS students testify that they were threatened and intimidated during the school protests, when the mayor already praised the students for walking out? How will the mayor respond to Jewish students who were attacked at DePaul University when his closest allies were at the encampments where knives, pellet guns and other improvised weapons were found? These extreme anti-Israel demonstrations hide under the guise of free speech but are really part of a growing movement of unchecked antisemitism masquerading as political activism. Will the mayor allow the CCHR hearings to reveal this fact or are we in for sanitized proceedings that refuse to address the root causes of anti-Jewish hate in Chicago? Can we expect actual change or just more thoughts and prayers from our city leadership? We will wait and see. But I promise that the Jewish community is tired of being silent. You will continue to hear from us as long as antisemitism remains at crisis levels. And I hope that our allies and every person of conscience in Chicago join us.
CBS News
22-07-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Mayor Johnson signs executive order to curb smoking on CTA trains and buses
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday signed an executive order to elimiate smoking on the Chicago Transit Authority system. Smoking is already banned on the CTA, and a group of Chicago alderpeople last month called for enforcement of the ban. On Tuesday, the mayor signed an executive order directing the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Department of Family and Support services, the Chicago Department of Public Health, and the mayor's office to work with the CTA to end smoking on public transit and improve public safety. "Smoking on our public transit system has got to stop, and I am directing our city's agencies and the Mayor's Office to work together to put an end to this activity," Mayor Johnson said in a news release. "Our public transit system is for all Chicagoans. We have parents taking their young children to school in the morning and seniors with respiratory issues who are inhaling smoke. This executive order calls for the same full-force-of-government approach that has resulted in historic reductions in crime to tackle this critical issue." The order directs city departments to partner with the CTA to "explore possible areas of collaboration," including deploying the Chicago Department of Public Health Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement teams and the Department of Family and Support Services Homeless Outreach and Prevention teams to curtail smoking on trains. In the order, the mayor also calls for exploring whether a team could be assembled, possibly including community violence interrupters and mental health professionals, to engage with people found smoking on the CTA system and offer "on-site counseling, smoking cessation resources, and long-term treatment." Johnson's announcement of the the order focused more on the health risks of smoking and the dangers of secondhand smoke than the nuisance issue of smoking specifically on 'L' trains and other CTA property. Complaints have made headlines in recent years about people smoking cigarettes, marijuana, and other substances on the CTA. But while referring generically to "smoking," the focus of much of the release on the mayor's order was on the health risks of cigarettes. CTA officials released some statistics about the issue in 2023, when it said more than 6,300 citations for smoking were issued. That same year, a CBS News Chicago investigation found more than 90% of those smoking fines went unpaid. According to a recent survey from the Regional Transportation Authority, four out of five riders who use CTA, Metra, or Pace say they've experienced cigarette and marijuana smoking or drinking on Chicago buses and trains, on platforms, and in stations. Noting the CTA is facing a major budget shortfall in 2026, some aldermen last month argued a concerted effort to decrease smoking on trains and buses could increase ridership, and boost revenue.
Chicago Tribune
22-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Prosecutors ask for bond increase for man charged in Portage murder later arrested on gun charges
The Porter County Prosecutor's office is asking a judge to increase the bond to $25,000 cash for Montrell McLaurin Jr., charged in a Portage murder and released on his own recognizance before being picked up twice for reportedly having a handgun. 'McLaurin continues to drive around this County while possessing firearms, which is something he is clearly prohibited from doing under Indiana Law,' since he was charged in Porter County with allegedly killing someone with a firearm, documents state. 'McLaurin is a danger to the citizens of this County and his Bond should reflect this increased danger he poses.' Deputy Prosecutor John Holmen filed the petition Friday, the day after McLaurin, 21, of Portage, was arrested by deputies with the Porter County Sheriff's Department during a routine traffic stop in which he was the driver. Police reportedly found a Glock 31C handgun under the passenger seat and within McLaurin's reach, according to court documents. Police also recovered a Diamond DB 15 firearm from the vehicle, and he was charged with two Class A misdemeanor counts of unlawful carrying of a handgun. McLaurin, according to court documents, was also arrested by Portage Police on May 22 on misdemeanor counts of unlawful carrying of a handgun and marijuana possession, and was released on $800 bond. McLaurin is out on pre-trial release for the April 29, 2024, murder of Darion Anderson in Portage. McLaurin allegedly killed Anderson 'with a Drako firearm that fires powerful 7.62 cartridges,' documents state. 'This Murder weapon was recently found by the Chicago Police Department during an arrest of juveniles in the City of Chicago.' He was charged with murder, murder in perpetration of a robbery and attempted robbery in that case. Prosecutors have requested a firearms enhancement for the charges. He has pleaded not guilty. McLaurin filed a motion for an early trial release on July 26, 2024, and was released on his own recognizance on Sept. 25, because his trial was not going to occur within a 180-day window after his arrest, as required by state law. Holmen, in his petition to increase bond, notes that a defendant is not entitled to release without bond when 'the arrestee is on pretrial release for an offense that is not related to the incident that is the basis for the present arrest.' The state can be granted a bail alteration when there is 'a showing of good cause' to support changing bail, documents state. 'It is the State's position that good cause exists based on the Defendant arrests for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm while being on pre-trial release for the same offense, and while also on release for the serious offense of Murder,' documents state. The state has already filed a motion to revoke bond in the May case, which had not been ruled on when the petition to increase bond was filed. A hearing on the motion to revoke bond from the May arrest is slated for Aug. 5 before Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Thode. A bail review hearing for the most recent charges is scheduled for July 29 before Porter Superior Court Judge Rebecca Buitendorp, according to online court records. McLaurin is scheduled for trial in the murder case on Oct. 6 in Buitendorp's court.
Chicago Tribune
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: CPD brass accuse Johnson's budget office of delaying paychecks
Good morning, Chicago. Chicago Police Department brass accused Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration of deliberately slowing down paychecks for dozens of employees this summer in a fiery email that warned the city was jeopardizing its compliance with the federal consent decree. Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons emailed multiple officials in Johnson's budget office June 2 to alert them of the department's overdue A-forms, paperwork required to process paychecks for new hires and promotions. After following up the next day to confirm that police recruits were not getting their first paychecks, he sent an additional message June 10 saying Johnson's budget office was purposely sitting on the forms. 'Given that we discussed at length via email and on our meeting on May 8th the need for timely approval of A-Forms, it would appear that OBM is pursuing a pattern of practice to delay the approval of A-Forms with the functional result of not paying employees on time and delaying compliance with the Consent Decree,' Fitzsimons wrote. 'What is OBM's plan to systemically approve or deny A-forms?' Read the full story from the Tribune's Alice Yin. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what Gov. JB Pritzker said at a climate change conference, why aldermen are debating gambling in Chicago's neighborhood bars or international airports and how Dennis Allen's defense is coming together as Bears training camp opens. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History Gov. JB Pritzker shared his fears about the future of climate policy under President Donald Trump — and his thoughts on how Illinois can stick to its climate goals amid federal funding cuts — at a climate conference last night in Chicago. Gambling could soon come to Chicago's neighborhood bars or international airports as aldermen eye legalizing video gambling machines as a way to add tax revenue. If Ald. William Hall gets his way, the gambling machines will be broadly legalized across the city next year, popping up in places like bars and restaurants to help address the city's budget woes. A Cook County jury convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso following a weeklong trial marked by difficult body camera footage of the 2023 slaying. Longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin, known as a tireless advocate for his clients who enjoyed holding the government accountable for overstepping authority in everything from terrorism investigations to electronic surveillance, died yesterday after a brief hospitalization. He was 78. On this day in 1934: Chicago was in the grip of a weeklong heat wave, and the mercury that day reached 101. Twenty-three people died of the heat, but the death that drew the most attention was that of John Dillinger — a 31-year-old Indiana man who, on his birthday a month earlier, had been declared Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI. In the heat of that July, movie houses advertised that they were 'air-cooled.' Perhaps that's what made Dillinger decide to take a prostitute named Polly Hamilton and Hamilton's landlady, Anna Sage, to the Biograph Theater (now known as Victory Gardens Theater) at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., to see 'Manhattan Melodrama,' a gangster movie starring Clark Gable. It wasn't a massive overhaul, but the Bears made a few key changes on defense heading into 2025. General manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson focused much of their effort on the trenches, adding two starters to the defensive line. With the Bears starting training camp, the Cubs at home against the Kansas City Royals in the heat of a pennant race and the White Sox on a rare three-game winning streak, yesterday was one of those days that reminds us why we never can leave. While we await the next heat dome, Paul Sullivan has some other observations on the world of sports. Amy Lechelt is a sort of modern-day Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl of 'My Fair Lady.' She is in the same business and has had, so far, a full, interesting and rewarding life, writes Rick Kogan. She is part of the city's floating outdoor economy, which includes, most obviously, food trucks, but is nowhere near the vibrancy and variety in such places as Paris or New York. About a month after her top-three finish on Bravo's 'Top Chef,' Bailey Sullivan, free of cameras and in her comfort zone, was back to working as executive chef at Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio. For the past few months, diners at the West Loop restaurant have received their bill with a glowing portrait of Sullivan, celebrating her appearance on the show. Sullivan's personal style is memorable — ever-colorful hair, large glasses and rotating patterned bandanas. It seems to tell you everything about her on first look: quirky and easily creative. But that belies a scholarly understanding of Italian cooking history, techniques and terminology, and a serious competitor. In this one-woman play, British writer Dennis Kelly (a Tony Award winner for the book of 'Matilda the Musical') manages a tricky balancing act, tackling an extremely dark subject in almost surgical detail while softening its harshest blows for the audience and maintaining some sense of hope in humanity. Oh, and the show is also hilarious, writes Emily McClanathan.
