The wilding that's made headlines this week isn't just relegated to Streeterville. more ›

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• Eight people were hospitalized when a city worker crashed their pick-up truck into a wedding photo shoot on the Near North Side.
• A 15-month-old toddler in Aurora died after his uncle backed over him with an SUV then fled the scene on Saturday.
• The car belonging to missing model Irma Sabanovic was found in the river near Goose Island.

a drive-by shooting on the West Side killed a 26-year-old man and wounded another. Other shootings happened in Old Irving Park, Roseland, Gage Park, Humboldt Park, West Englewood, the Near West Side, and two were shot in Lawndale. more ›

A moving vehicle with a gunman firing shots from it led to a crash that involved a CTA bus in Englewood yesterday. 11 people were injured. more ›

President Obama has called for a National Moment of Silence at 10 a.m. to honor Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the six people who were killed and those injured when 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire on an appearance the Arizona Democrat had scheduled in Tucson, AZ Saturday. Giffords remains in a medically induced coma while her brain heals from the gunshot wound and subsequent surgery. more ›

We're keeping tabs on reports from Arizona of a shooting in Tucson, AZ today. Among those shot was Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was meeting with constituents when a gunman approached and opened fire, hitting Giffords in the head along with several others. more ›

Police take their oath "to serve and protect" to heart. But it still comes as a shock when we read news of a policeman killed, whether in the line of duty or not. We were shocked a lot in 2010. more ›

A 12-year old boy who was shot by an elderly woman in September pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from the vandalizing of the woman's home and harassment of her that led to him being shot. more ›

Police Department officials are at a loss today as to why a 15-year veteran was killed off-duty last night. The identity of the officer is being withheld pending family notification and the officer apparently had few relations in the city. more ›

Stunning new yesterday out of Will County as charges against Brian Dorian, the Lynwood police officer alleged to have killed one man and wounded two in a shooting spree last week, were dropped after authorities discovered evidence on Dorian's home computer that placed him at his Crete Township home during the shootings. more ›

A manhunt is on in Indiana and Will County for a man suspected of killing one and wounding two in separate shootings yesterday in Lowell, IN and Beecher, IL. more ›

While the calendar shows Fall closing in (Thursday is the first day!) warm weather shows no signs of abating. Nor do signs of the city's spate of summer violence, unfortunately. Eight people were shot across the city overnight, including a pair of men outside the office of Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th). The two men, 19 and 26, were shot in an apparent drive-by shooting last night around 8:30 p.m.; Ald. Preckwinkle said the shooting was not related to her office. Shootings also wounded others in the West Englewood, North Austin, and Roseland neighborhoods overnight. One man was reported in critical condition but no deaths were reported. As usual, the final line of WBBM's report on the outbreak is the most telling: "No one was in custody Tuesday morning in any of the shootings." more ›

Another wave of violence started at 6 p.m. on Saturday when a 13-year-old boy playing with a gun accidentally shot himself in the leg in the 2000 block of West Howard Street and ended at 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning when a suspect in a vehicle shot a male in the 0-100 block of West 108th Place, police said to the Chicago Sun-Times. The 13-year-old boy was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston and is listed in "stable" condition and the male on the South Side was listed in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. more ›

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn chimed in on Police Superintendent Jody Weis's recent sit down with Chicago gang leaders, telling reporters that he doesn't support the strategy. “I don’t think that’s a particularly good strategy. … I just don’t think those are the people you want to be talking to,” Quinn told the Sun-Times. “I think it’s better to be fighting against assault weapons and protecting our officers and our communities against gang bangers who have assault weapons that are perpetrating mayhem and terrorism on the streets of Chicago. ... I’m running against somebody who supports assault weapons. Sen. [Bill] Brady, every chance he gets, votes with the guns. I don’t think that’s the way to go.” more ›

Police Superintendent Jody Weis's recent tete a tete with local gang leaders has angered some aldermen, who say that Chicago's top cop shouldn't be "negotiating with urban terrorists." 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti, who is rumored to be considering a run against Daley for mayor, lashed out at Weis Monday for his mid-August meeting. "I can't believe we're sitting down and negotiating with urban terrorists who are killing our kids with guns and drugs on the streets," Fioretti told the Sun-Times. "These are not people the superintendent ought to be negotiating with. They've now been elevated to equals. They're not equals. They belong in jail. It's an admission that the Police Department can't control the streets." Fioretti also questioned Weis's threat of going at gang leaders with federal racketeering charges if they don't back down, wondering why the police superintendent hadn't already applied that tactic. "We ought to be working hard with the feds and U.S. Attorney's office to start applying these RICO statutes now instead of giving them a warning that says, 'If you kill somebody.' That didn't help this weekend." 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, a longtime Daley critic, wondered if a crisis of leadership in the department was to blame. "What would accomplish more is to have a Police Department with good morale that believed in their leadership and believed in their mayor. We haven't had a Police Department with that kind of leadership in 22 years," Moore said. more ›

During an eight-hour period of overnight gun violence as detailed via the Chicago Sun-Times, one man was killed and 15 other people were injured from Saturday evening into early Sunday, police said. David A. Buckner, 47, of the 630 block of East 89th Street, was fatally shot while two rival groups exchanged gunfire at Ada Park. The shooting happened around 8 p.m. and also wounded three other people--a 37-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman suffered gunshot wounds to the leg and a 19-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the neck. All three were taken to nearby hospitals. more ›

A pair of drive-by shooting incidents have left two men dead and six people hurt. The first drive-by happened just after 1:15 a.m. in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. A group of men in a black Cadillac opened fire on a group of women in the 600 block of N. St. Louis, wounding four, two critically. The second shooting was outside a party in the Stony Island Park neighborhood around 2:30 a.m., killing two men and injured two others. According to the Tribune: "One man was at the party, two were coming to the party by car and a fourth man was standing in the street talking with his girlfriend when a dark car drove past and shots rang out, wounding all four." Two men, both 22, were later pronounced dead at separate hospitals. No one is in custody for either shooting. more ›

In a violent summer, the city last night saw its most violent single incident so far. Nine people were hurt - one seriously - in what police are calling a gang-related shooting at a CTA turnabout at 7900 S. Western Ave., a junction for both the CTA's No. 49 and No. 79 buses. According to police, five of the nine victims are known gang members (four Gangster Disciples, one Vice Lord). The victims, eight males and one female, ranged in age from 16 to 31. CPD Supt. Jody Weis stressed the gang-related nature of the shooting, telling reporters, "I don't want people to think there's any kind of threat against people waiting for the bus or anything like that." We're all breathing a sigh of relief; thanks, Jody. more ›

The Chicago Police officer gunned down outside his home yesterday morning was identified as 62-year-old Michael Bailey, a 20-year veteran of the force who was due to retire in a few weeks. Bailey would have turned 63 next month, the mandatory retirement age for Chicago Police officers. The search continues for the suspects, who approached Bailey early yesterday morning outside his house as he was cleaning a new Buick car he had just purchased a few weeks ago. He had just returned home from overnight guard duty at Mayor Daley's house. Daley said in a statement yesterday, "This is a tragic, stunning reminder of the senseless violence that stalks too many of our neighborhoods. Another Chicago police officer gunned down, this time just weeks before leaving a long career of protecting Chicago. It's absolutely outrageous. ... I knew him. He was a good man. He did not deserve this." Police are still investigating the motive, but an attempted robbery remains the likely one. Bailey is the third officer killed in two months: Officer Thomas Wortham, IV was shot outside his parents' Chatham home while off-duty in an attempted robbery on May 19 and Officer Thor Soderberg was killed less than two weeks ago. more ›

A warm, sunny weekend took a violent turn overnight as at least three people have been reported killed and 12 wounded since last night. In all, the Tribune reports 13 separate shooting incidents ranging from 8:16 p.m. last night to 5:06 a.m. this morning. Two of the fatalities were reported in the Englewood neighborhood. The first killing happened at 10:25 p.m., the other at around 1 a.m. when police responded to shots fired in the 6400 block of South Paulina Avenue. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene while the other was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The third killing happened early this morning in the East Chatham neighborhood. There were no reports of any suspects being held for any of the shootings. more ›

Mayer Daley and Chicago Police Supt Jody Weis joined hundreds of churchgoers and Grand Crossing neighborhood residents on Saturday in an attempt to demand an end to gun violence that resulted in 54 people getting shot last weekend in Chicago. The event stretched across 10 city blocks on East 79th Street. more ›

Between late Friday evening and early this morning, 40 people were reported shot across the city with seven reported deaths. Chicago Police Supt. blamed at least half of the incidents on gangs. According to the Tribune, 18 people were shot just last night and, in a refrain that we're far too used to, the Trib reports, "No one is in custody for any of the shootings." In one incident on the West Side, in the 1300-block of West Hastings, five people, including a small child, were hurt in a shooting just after midnight at a Father's Day bar-b-q. Earlier in the weekend, three men were killed early Saturday morning in a shooting in Little Village. On Saturday night, an argument over a woman led to two men injured by gunfire and another killed in the Roseland neighborhood. more ›

The violent holiday weekend finished with another shooting death overnight, one of five people shot in the weekend's final hours. A 30-year-old man was found in the 200 block of East 115th St around 3:20 a.m. and was taken to Oak Lawn's Advocate Christ Medical Center where he was pronounced dead less than a half-hour later. It's the sixth reported death from weekend violence. Five other men were injured in separate shootings last night. more ›

After Saturday night's outbreak of violence, Sunday saw a similar rash of shootings that's left as many as 12 injured and 3 dead. The first reported incident occurred yesterday afternoon shortly after 1 p.m. in the city's West Elsdon neighborhood and the last one happened around 5:30 a.m. this morning in the Uptown neighborhood where a man was shot by a bike-riding gunman. Shootings in Brighton Park, Little Village, and Englewood resulted in deaths. In addition to the four shootings deaths this weekend, another man died as a result of injuries sustained in a beating in Bridgeport early Sunday morning. With the five deaths since Saturday afternoon, May 2010 has seen 43 murders, slightly down from last May's total of 47, but that's not saying much. more ›

Along with the next round of warm weather comes the next round of violence, this one the most violent outbreak the city has seen so far this year. One man is dead and 21 were wounded in a spate of shootings over the 24 hours since this time yesterday. The first shooting was reported yesterday around 11 a.m. in the 5300 block of S. Laflin St. A little over 12 hours later, another shooting just two blocks north of that incident, in the 5100 block of S. Laflin St., another shooting would leave a 19-year-old man dead. Most depressing of all, as the Tribune reports: "No one is in custody for any of the shootings." more ›

An afternoon shooting near Rainbow Beach on the South Side has killed three people. The Tribune is calling the shooting "drug-related" and noting that all three victims were shot in the head. Today's incident follows another violent night in Chicago that included a trio of violent incidents at the Lakefront on the city's North Side last night, one of which was a gang-related shooting that left one man dead. more ›

With temperatures surging yesterday to 15-degrees above normal, reaching mid-July levels, the city saw another round of violence overnight. Nine people have been reported injured in seven separate shootings since 9:10 p.m. last night with one dead, a 35-year-old man shot near Washington Park. According to the Tribune, no suspects in any shootings were in custody as of 6:30 a.m. this morning. more ›

It was the first warm, dry night we've had this week so it goes to follow an outbreak of violence would occur. Eight people were reported injured by shootings since yesterday afternoon, two critically. The first occurred around 4 p.m. in the Gresham neighborhood where two people, a 27-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, were shot. At 5 p.m., a drive-by shooting in the 2200 block of North Lawler Ave. wounded an 18-year-old man. Additionally, CBS 2 reports a late night shooting at 2353 S. Whipple St., bringing the total to seven shootings reported in all. CBS 2 also reported a pair of unrelated stabbing incidents that left two people wounded; both victims were reported to be in "good" condition. more ›

It was the warmest weather we've had yet this year, so it goes to follow we'd have an outbreak of violence. Indeed, seven people are dead and at least 11 others wounded after a deadly night. The Tribune reported six dead while CBS 2 reported seven which includes a later afternoon shooting. more ›