Milton Wardlaw, charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kiyanna Salters, has been denied bail at a hearing this morning.......

Milton Wardlaw, the young man who turned himself in to authorities in connection to the shooting of 17-year-old Kiyanna Salters aboard a CTA bus Sunday, has officially been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Wardlaw will attend a bail hearing today. He has previous convictions for drugs and weapons charges, and, while admitting he was on the bus and involved in an argument with another passenger, has......

Answering pleas from his mother, Milton Wardlaw (pictured right) turned himself in and declared his innocence in Sunday's shooting death of 17-year-old Kiyanna Salters aboard a CTA bus. Wardlaw joined his family at Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church and was later escorted away by police. While police did not confirm that Wardlaw was the man on the surveillance tape, they did say they had a suspect in custody. Not to mention Wardlaw's own words: We......

The man accused of shooting 17-year-old Kiyanna Salters onboard a CTA bus Sunday night has been identified by family members thanks to surveillance footage from the bus even as police had already identified the man. While media reports aren't naming the man since he has yet to be officially charged with anything, the reports identified his mother as Patricia Wilson. She told the Trib, "I want my son to turn himself in. I want him......

Jose Antonio Mendoza, 28, of Hammond, Indiana has been charged with murder in connection to the death of his girlfriend's 17-month-old daughter, Savannah Fullgraf. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled her death was from multiple injuries due to child abuse. Doctors at St. Margaret Mercy Hospital in Hammond reported she had extensive bruises, as well as burns and broken bones.......

Police have revealed more information on Sunday night's CTA shooting that left an innocent 17-year-old dead. Kiyanna Salter was sitting with her cousin, Jasmine Wilcox, on the No. 71 bus Sunday, talking to a man on the bus the two had just met. At that point, another man accidentally touched the man's hand hand as he was exiting the bus. And that's all it took. The two men argued briefly and both flashed guns in......

Photo by jake.merten Kevetta Davis, 19, a Walter Payton High grad and student at SIU, was killed in a car wreck when a driver working for VH1's Rock Of Love fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of the car. CBS 2 spent some time with anxious Chicago investors after Monday's bailout rejection by Congress. A South Side man is in custody for shooting a woman during a robbery attempt. When the woman......

Damn. Just...damn. That's all we can say when we read these kinds of stories. On the heels of this weekend's shooting of Eternity Gaddy (who died yesterday morning), 10-year-old Nequiel Fowler was shot dead Monday afternoon outside her home in the 8700 block of South Exchange Avenue. She had bent over to tie the shoe of her blind sister, Valerie, 5, when the bullet struck. Nequiel's mother, Linda Williams, described finding her daughter: At first......

Governor Rod Balgojevich will more than likely perform an amendatory veto on legislation regarding allowing hearsay in first-degree murder trials. According to the Trib, the bill, "would allow a judge to decide at a pretrial hearing whether hearsay testimony could be admitted into court if the prosecution could prove that the defendant made the witness disappear." The current incarnation of the bill, which passed both the state House and Senate, currently does not include an......

Jason Austin (pictured left), 26, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of robbery in the last week's shooting of Chicago Police Officer Robert Soto and Kathryn Romberg. Prosecutors have not said whether or not they will seek the death penalty if Austin is convicted. Cook County Criminal Court Judge Laura Sullivan denied bail for Austin, who has five previous convictions, including one for aggravated battery that was originally......

Three men have been charged with murder stemming from a weekend fight that led to a third-rail electrocution. Daniel McKenzie, 43, was at the Roosevelt Red Line station around 2 a.m. Sunday morning when he was attacked by three men (pictured): brothers Clint Johnson (left), 29, and Martell Darnell Johnson (center), 21, and Maurice Evans (right), 23. Details remain sketchy as to exactly what happened, but as a result of the altercation, McKenzie fell off......

Photo by Stuck in Customs Trib says four, Sun-Times says three people were taken to area hospitals when when a car driven by an elderly woman plowed into a West Rogers Park Starbucks. There is no evidence the driver of the car was intoxicated, or hyped up on cafinated beverages. [S-T, Trib] Get this, a male skeleton -- in full clothing -- has been found near the water processing plant near Stickney. [Trib] Chicago......

Police have confiscated the van belonging to Mya Lyon’s father, Richard Lyons. Reportedly, he drove Mya to the hospital in the van after finding her stabbed in an alley near their home. Richard Lyons has hired an attorney, and is no longer talking to the media. Police, who had asked him to report to headquarters for questioning, called back to say he didn’t have to report. He’s already submitted a DNA test, and to a......

The tragic epidemic of Chicago Public School students being killed continues. Percy Rounds (pictured), 15, was killed by gunfire just after 10 p.m. last night in the 100 block of West 116th Street. Two unknown men emerged from a nearby gangway, approached Rounds and an unnamed friend, and opened fire, striking Rounds in the head. He was pronounced dead at the Stein Institute a few hours later. The other teen, 17, was struck in thigh......

Image by pantagrapher. Obama arrived in Kabul today for a ‘surprise’ visit. Didn’t we all know he’s be showing up there sometime soon? [S-T] Sailors began the Chicago Yacht Club’s annual race to Mackinac today. You can track boats on-line here. [Trib] A man who lost his leg in a meat grinder is now suing the meat factory where he worked. [WBBM] Mya Lyons, the nine-year-old girl killed earlier this week, was laid to......

A Cicero woman was found stabbed to death in her apartment and authorities are searching for her husband, who may have also abducted the couple's baby daughter, as a "person of interest" in the crime. Yesenia Villalba-Honorato, 21, was found stabbed in her apartment in the 5500 block of West 18th Street Wednesday evening and was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 8 p.m. It's unclear how long ago the crime may have taken......

After yesterday's tragic news of a murdered 9 year-old girl, this is not the way we wanted to start the morning. Jose Callabero, a 16 year-old Logan Square boy, was shot in the head and killed in his home (located in the 2700 block of North Fairfield Ave.) early Wednesday morning. The shooting occurred around 3:45 a.m. Police have not released any more information, though there are no suspects and no known motives at this......

North Avenue beach house by RUNFAR. Take that! A Grayslake man has been hospitalized after he fell and broke his hip while stabbing his wife! His wife ran to a neighbors for help. She’s doing okay. During the investigation, police found, “an Uzi semiautomatic submachine gun and a Beretta pistol in the home.” [WBBM] Two boats in Belmont Harbor were destroyed late Friday when they caught fire. People aboard the 42-foot boat had to......

Just as Alderman Isaac Carothers is calling out top Cop Jody Weis, Chicago saw Thursday morning open with more shootings. The first happened on the North Side, in the Edgewater Beach neighborhood, around 3 a.m. A 24 year-old man was shot in the 5600 block of North Winthrop Avenue following what witnesses described as an argument with another man. The victim is currently in critical condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. A pair of......

Glenview 4th of July Parade photo by Kudzuplanet. It’s been a busy weekend for crime and violence, unfortunately. So busy that we’ve had a hard time keeping track of the shootings and stabbings. WBBM has a tally: two police-involved shootings and several fatalities. A woman was stabbed to death in Lincolnshire yesterday. It was the first murder for the affluent suburb in 20 years. [Trib] UPDATE: Lincolnshire police have named the husband of the......

Photo by nvaughn Sorry to start the day as a Debbie Downer, but it was a bad night for violent crime in the city. Yeesh. A 27-year Chicago Police veteran was killed early this morning just outside the police station at Belmont and Western. Belmont District Officer Richard Francis, 60, responded to a call of a street disturbance across the street from the station. He was confronted by a woman and a struggle ensued,......

Nicholas Sheley of Sterling, Illinois is wanted by Illinois State Police in connection to eight recent murders in Illinois and Missouri. A $25,000 reward has been offered for his arrest. Sheley is considered a "person of interest" in a quadruple homicide in Rock Falls, Illinois as well as a murder in Galesburg, Illinois and two homicides in St. Louis suburb Festus, Missouri. On Monday, the bodies of two men, a woman and a child......

Photo by kookybites Police are still investigating what they think is a drug-related triple homicide that occurred last night in the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue. [Trib, S-T, CBS2] An unnamed person was arrested in McHenry County today by the FBI for possession of illegal toxins. [Trib, S-T] Now this is Pulitzer-worthy investigative journalism: What does Obama do on his day off? We were going to say "practice Guitar Hero skills" but, alas,......

"American Muscle. Rican Pride." Spotted at yesterday's Puerto Rican Pride Parade. Photographed by Todd.Burbo. Turning bad to good, the parents of NIU shooting victim Daniel Parmenter planted an oak tree in his memory at the Elmhurst baseball park where he spent his youth. They’ve also created a scholarship to help children attend baseball or umpire training camps. Nine of the 17 Chicago victims of tomato-linked salmonella poisoning have been linked to one restaurant. 29......

Bella’s Pizza owner Michael Cosmano was arrested Wednesday for a murder that took place in 1981. The impetus was a phone call to police by a former pizza delivery driver who had witnessed the crime and kept silent all this time from fear that Cosmano had connections with the mob. The story goes like this: Back in 1981, pizza delivery driver Milton Rodriguez had begun to organize his coworkers to strike over poor working conditions......

Paging Dick Wolf. This case is fucked up. Ari Squire, 39, didn't die two weeks ago when he was crushed by his truck. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday. The man crushed in Lake Barrington on February 23 was actually 20-year-old Justin Newman, and it wasn't an accident. Police say Squire murdered Newman in an attempt to fake his own death, collect his life insurance policy and steal the younger man's......

Composite sketch of the gunman in the Lane Bryant Murders. Image via Trib. Tinley Park police released a sketch today of the gunman who killed five women in a botched clothing store robbery. The gunman is described in a statement from the Tinley Park Police: He is a male African American, approximately 5’10” tall, he is described as being large framed, but with his weight proportionate to his size. He is roughly between 25......

It’s official now, the frozen woman found yesterday is not the body of Lisa Stebic or Stacy Peterson. The identity of the woman has not been released, but those two have been eliminated as possible victims. The body in question had several stab wounds, from which she died. Police are investigating it as a homicide. A land surveyor found the badly decomposed body on the Southwest Side. Screen capture from CLTV.......

Another man was charged today in U of C grad student Amadou Cisse's murder. Benjamin Williams, 21, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery, two counts of armed robbery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm for the string of robberies that preceeded Cisse's death. Williams was not accused of shooting Cisse, and he's the third person charged with crimes from that night. Authorities previously charged Eric Walker, 16, with Cisse's killing as well as the......

More news today about the state's case against Reginald Potts, and the evidence is really piling up. Potts was charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend Nailah Franklin over the weekend and on Monday was denied bail. According to Assistant State's Attorney Bob Milan, Potts left a voicemail for Franklin saying he could have her "erased" after Franklin sent an e-mail to some of her friends detailing Potts's criminal past. (According to Potts's blog entry on his......