A Walgreens security guard was shot and killed at the River North store last night. more ›

Haley Pelock, 19, of Chicago Heights was shot dead on Friday night inside a Chicago Heights home. She was believed to be home for Spring Break from college. As of late Saturday, police were questioning a person of interest. An autopsy of Pelock determined that she died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Her death was ruled to be a homicide. more ›

The "code of silence" brought a suburban murder trial to a halt last summer, when prosecutors attempted to argue that Antonio Aguilar Jr. and Robert Meza shot into a window in west suburban Addison, hoping to hit a rival gang member. Instead, Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez, 22, a bystander with no gang affiliation, was killed. Although Meza had already been sentenced to 45 years in prison for his involvement in the shooting, he still said nothing when he took the stand to testify about Aguilar's involvement. "I apologize, sir, but I cannot answer any questions," Meza said to Judge George Bakalis via the Huffington Post. more ›

As the snow begins to melt, it's back to business as usual in Chicago. Early this morning a man was shot and robbed of a snowblower in the Englewood neighborhood, marking the first shooting since the blizzard hit on Tuesday, police said via the Chicago Tribune. There had been no shootings in the city since 3 p.m. on Tuesday when the snow first hit, according to preliminary data. more ›

A 19-year-old parolee wearing an electronic ankle monitoring device was arrested in connections with last week's shooting deaths of Chicago policeman Michael Flisk and CHA officer Stephen Peters. Timothy Herring, Jr. was released on parole in April after a 2007 conviction for armed robbery. Herring was also sent to jail in July after testing positive for marijuana. more ›

Family and friends of Lynwood police officer Brian Dorian, who allegedly killed one man and wounded two others in a shooting spree last week across Illinois and Indiana, held a fundraiser for Dorian while maintaining that they cannot believe he was involved in the shootings. more ›

As a clearer picture of what happened Tuesday begins to emerge, neighbors are still coming to the defense of Margaret Matthews, the 68-year-old woman who shot and injured a 12-year-old boy who is accused, along with an accomplice, of harassing the woman and vandalizing her home. The account police offered hadn't changed all that much from yesterday. Matthews had returned home from grocery shopping to find her windows broken and saw the two boys running from her house. She called the police but the boys returned, shouting at her and when she went outside, she found them standing on a nearby shed throwing bricks, one of which, she told the Tribune, hit her in the chest. She called police again, got her gun, and fired. Matthews told the Tribune, "There is no explanation for how I felt. I was terrified...The young man hit me in the chest with a brick. After a year of harassment, that was the straw that broke the camel's back." more ›

A woman, either 68 years old if you believe the Tribune or 74 years old if you believe the Sun-Times, will not face charges after she shot and wounded a 12-year-old vandal who, along with a 13-year-old accomplice, harassed her. The woman, who lives in the 7600 block of South Coles Avenue, returned home from grocery shopping to find her windows broken. After calling the police to report the vandalism, the boys returned and began yelling obscenities. That's when the woman came out of her house and shot at the boys, striking the 12-year-old in the shoulder. After investigating the incident, police decided not to charge the woman but did charge both boys, as juveniles, with aggravated assault of a person over the age of 60. more ›

As differing accounts of this weekend's police-involved shooting on the Red Line emerge, so, too, does a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the victim's mother. Police responded to a call of an armed suspect on board a Red Line train early Saturday morning, boarding the train at the Garfield stop. According to police, the suspect, 19-year-old George Lash, tried to fight with the arresting officers and pointed a gun at them, prompting them to shoot Lash, ultimately killing him. But accounts claiming that Lash was unarmed and handcuffed at the time of the shooting surfaced as well and now Lash's mother has filed suit. From the Tribune: more ›

• Parents of students at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen held a sit-in to protest the proposed demolition of the school's field house.
• A South Side man was shot twice today and survived both times.
• Shareholders for both Continental and United Airlines approved the airlines' proposed merger.

A 14-year-old Roseland boy is being held by police in what's being considered an accidental shooting that killed his 12-year-old brother. The shotgun, purchased legally and properly locked away, according to authorities, had been in the home for several years and belonged to another relative. While the The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is investigating, the family has never been involved in any prior investigations and Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak called the shooting "most likely is non-criminal," meaning charges may not be filed. more ›

• Bad news from the Field Museum where they'll be trimming 50 jobs from the staff.
• McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi was indicted today on felony conspiracy charges.
• A suspect is being held in this week's shooting of a Bowen High School student.

The Chicago Public Schools' new school year is just a few days old and already a pair of violent acts have shaken the system, leaving one student dead and a student and teacher wounded. DeAntonio Goss, a 16-year-old sophomore at Bowen High School, was shot and killed yesterday afternoon, the first CPS student killed this school year. The shooting happened around 2:45 p.m. and another student, an 18-year-old senior, was also wounded in the shooting. Police say the shooting may have stemmed from a fight at school earlier in the day. more ›

What started as an attempted traffic stop on the South Side last night took a violent turn when a suspect used his car to injure three CPD officers and left the suspect dead and a passenger in the car injured. The attempted traffic stop happened just after midnight in the 9100 block of South Halsted Street but the driver fled and later hit another police car involved in the chase. After the car came to a stop, the driver attempted to flee again. Per the Tribune: more ›

An 8-year-old girl was killed and her young cousin critically wounded in a shooting in Roseland last night, the young girls two of 10 shooting victims across the city last night. Tanaja Stokes, 8, was killed after being shot in the head and her cousin, Ariana Jones (reported to be 5-years-old by the Tribune and 7-years-old by the Sun-Times), was critically wounded. The Roseland shooting happened around 8 p.m. last night near Indiana and 107th. About 20 minutes prior to the shooting, there had been a large fight between three teenagers - two boys and one girl - that escalated to involve nearly 20 teens. Police are still investigating if the two incidents were related but they did say the girls were not the intended targets of the gunmen, who pulled up on bikes and opened fire. more ›

• 13-year-old Ronald Freeman, an incoming eighth grader at Oglesby Elementary School, was killed while riding his bike in West Pullman last night, shot 22 times by a gunman who police are continuing to search for.
• Convicted former police commander Jon Burge will continue to receive his pension until the moment he is sentenced.
• At the press conference where Mayor Daley took on Michigan, oil, and Asian Carp, it was also announced 225 “non-instructional” employees will be laid off from City Colleges.

The City of Chicago is preparing for today's ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States on the handgun ban as the court issues its opinion on McDonald v. City of Chicago. (The city of Oak Park also has its handgun ban at issue with the case.) The City has been preparing for this day for months and, according to one report from the Tribune, if the ban is overturned, the City Council could take action on new local legislation by as soon as Wednesday. Indications are that the Court will come down with a 5-4 decision of overturning the ban, but that's still speculation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas were reported earlier this year as favoring the ban, enough for a 5-4 majority. All five justices also voted to overturn a similar ban for Washington D.C. in 2008. more ›

• A flight attendant with a pilot's license helped land an American Airlines plane at O'Hare this afternoon after the pilot fell ill.
• Mayor Daley met with Wal-Mart execs today and came away "encouraged" the city and the super-mega-retailer will hammer out a deal to open multiple stores in the city.
• More on today's Chicago School Board decision to give the CPS power to increase class size.

After a lull of several days that saw zero murders, four people, including a 15-year-old boy and a pregnant woman, were killed over the weekend. The first killing happened early Saturday morning when 20-year-old Ludjana Dido of Avondale, who was pregnant with her first child and who had recently graduated from Lydia Urban Academy, was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Dido was with a group of friends that allegedly became involved in an argument with another group. As Dido was getting into a car, another car struck her and drove off. Police have charged 18-year-old Roberto Garcia with first-degree murder in Dido's death. Also early Saturday morning, a man was found dead from a gunshot wound in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. Police currently have not arrested any suspects. more ›

• The search is on in Wisconsin for a 9-year-old girl from Chicago who fell into Lake Michigan while kayaking.
• Responding to Stedman's comments from last week, Mayor Daley insists that the city really really does like Oprah.
• Two teens were wounded in an overnight shooting in Gage Park.

Thomas Wortham IV, a Chicago Police officer, was killed last night outside his parents' Chatham home when three men tried to rob him of his motorcycle; Wortham was off-duty at the time. Three men left their car and approached Wortham around 11:30 p.m. last night as he was leaving his parents house after dinner. When they tried to steal his motorcycle, gunfire was exchanged. Wortham was reportedly shot in the head; his father, a retired police veteran, had seen the men approach his son, came outside, and shot at the three suspects, striking two and killing one. The third suspect fled the scene in a car; police have since recovered what they think is that vehicle. The suspect killed has been identified as Brian Floyd, 20. Wortham is the second officer from the CPD's Englewood District to be killed within the last year. Officer Alejandro Valadez, who was shot and killed last year, also worked in the District. more ›

A pair of crime scenes on the Southwest Side has left a body count of six for police to investigate. The first was in the city's West Elsdon neighborhood. Three people are dead in what police are calling a double murder-suicide shooting that occurred last night in the 4200 block of West 55th Street. Police suspect a woman and another man were shot dead by the woman's estranged husband who then killed himself. It's at least the city's third multiple victim domestic-related incident in the last month, coming just weeks after a domestic-related incident left five dead in Marquette Park and a murder-suicide at th Loop Old Navy store left two dead. more ›

• One University Park man took the "get off my lawn!" thing too far, shooting and killing a neighbor whose dog urinated on his front yard.
• Be careful on that train: theft on the CTA is up so far in 2010.
• Scott Lee Cohen has a running mate. Unsurprisingly, he did not get his first choice.

The Old Navy shooting on Friday morning in the Loop that resulted in the death of a Beverly couple has been ruled a suicide-murder due to autopsy reports. The Cook County medical examiner's office said that Tranesha Palms, 22, suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and Eugene Robertson, 27, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The couple also had a child together, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. more ›

A shooting happened just half an hour ago at the Loop Old Navy location on N. State and the Sun-Times is reporting one person dead. Twitter user justinmassa took this photo of the chaos outside the store following the shooting. He also told us, "lots of cops, some in riot gear. unclear if whatever happened has ended..." more ›

One man is dead and another critically injured after a shooting on the Stevenson Expressway early this morning. Details are still sketchy but the driver of an SUV was critically injured while a passenger in the SUV was killed; a second passenger was uninjured. The incident occurred shortly after 4 a.m. along the Stevenson Expressway near Central Avenue. According to the Tribune, police are investigating if the shooting was related to an altercation earlier in the night at a River North bar. The driver was last reported in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital. more ›

A pair of separate gang-related shootings last night injured three youngsters. more ›

Cynia Cole, the 20-month-old girl who was shot in the head last night, died around noon today at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. Her mother told media that doctors had been trying to reduce brain swelling before she passed away. Police still believe her father, Jerome Hendricks, was the target of the attack. more ›

Police have arrested a suspect in last night's horrific Marquette Park shooting that left four dead and two injured. The shooting occurred at the family's house in the 7200 block of South Mozart St, according to WGN. The suspect hasn't been named but told police he heard voices that told him to kill his family. According to the Tribune: more ›

There are major delays happening on the Red Line right now "due to fire department activity at Grand" so you might need to seek alternate routes home. more ›