Police are talking to a "person of interest" in Mya Lyons's death this afternoon. The person of interest, a man in his 30s or 40s, was arrested sometime between 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday after possibly telling his friends he had been in the alley where Mya was found. He told investigators he is a "scrapper"—someone who collects scrap metal -to sell. He allegedly admitted to police he was in the alley and said that......

Governor Blagojevich is offering to dispatch the Illinois State Police to help stem what he called "out of control" violence in Chicago. "Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop. And we have to do something constructively to try and make that violence stop," he said. "Maybe, we can play a role and provide more manpower so that the mayor doesn’t have to make that choice between taking a police officer from, let’s say,......

More details are emerging in Mya Lyons's murder today. Her autopsy showed that she was not sexually assaulted, and police say her father, Richard Lyons, is not a suspect. The 9-year-old had gone to bed about 11 p.m. Monday after telling her grandmother she was tired and wanted to sleep. About 10 minutes later, the family heard a door shut. The noise drew the girl's father downstairs to investigate, relatives said. After quickly discovering Mya......

Mya Lyons, 9, was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death last night. Lyons was found in the alley behind her father's apartment on the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court. Lyons (no relation) lived with her mother in Addison most of the time and was an honor student Stanley Hall school in Glendale Heights. Relatives said Mya's father discovered the little girl was not in the house around midnight Monday night, prompting him to wake......

In the wake of the recent uptick in violence, including last week's Taste of Chicago shootings, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis is being called to face the music by Alderman (29th) and Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers. "He's inexperienced, and it's his first Taste," Carothers said. "I want to see what his response is going to be to deal with this violence, not only at the Taste, but with this unprecedented violence in this city—13......

I recently found myself on a nearly-empty Brown Line car during the early evening, when I realized that a man sitting next to me was masturbating. I kicked him and yelled at him to stop, which he did, and he left the train at the next stop. My immediate reaction was to feel relieved that I had so quickly recognized and taken control of the situation. And although I was grossed out, my prevailing feeling......

Two men were sentenced to two years probation today for raping a 14-year-old girl. Tony Pacheco (left), 17 at the time of the 2006 crime, and Angel Alverio (right), then 18, pleaded guilty yesterday to one count each of aggravated battery and criminal sexual abuse. The were sentenced to 24 months probation and both have to register as sex offenders for 10 years. From an NBC 5 story from August, 2006: After Alverio and Pacheco......

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......

Josue Torres's mother wants an apology from police superintendent Jody Weis--and she's is threatening to sue if she doesn't get one. Recall Weis blamed the 8-year-old's parents for the child being shot. Jessica Perez, Josue's mother, is a legal secretary, and her boss, Robert A. Habib, is representing her. Habib released a letter to Weis, defending Perez and saying "your statement was defamatory and libelous. ... It was also unbelievably cruel and heartless.'' Weis didn't......

Apparently finding a summer job is not as easy as it used to be. Kids looking for part-time employment are facing a shrinking job market, and it's already difficult to land a job without experience or job history. And on July 1, the state will increase its minimum wage from $7.50 to $7.75, possibly increasing the squeeze on the number of available jobs. But work is still out there, and the non-profit Youth Job Center......

Police Superintendent Jody Weis said yesterday that the parents of 8-year-old shooting victim Josue Torres Jr. are at fault. "I hate to say it, but the parents are to blame for that 8-year-old being shot. They choose to engage in this activity. Now we have an innocent 8-year-old who is shot...[The boy's step-father is] engaging in gang activity and, more than likely, he's probably breaking some laws. ... As long as we have people who......

Ulysses Simmons, 14, died Monday morning after he was shot near his home, apparently in a dispute over a bicycle. On Saturday, Simmons and his friends had been riding their bikes when they stopped in Simmons's home near 92nd and Cottage Grove. While they were inside, the bikes were stolen. Other kids identified the thieves, who live a couple of blocks away. Some of Ulysses' buddies went and demanded the bikes back from the teens......

Five people were injured, three seriously, when a car plowed into a crowd in a West Side alley last night. "The incident was sparked when someone in the crowd sprayed mace at the motorist, who then drove through the crowd, possibly twice." [S-T] Oh, no. Now that we know the New York Times has the game Set online we may be capable of waisting Chain Factor-levels of time in all new ways. Speaking of oh,......

At least eight men were killed in the city this weekend, and there have been five police-involved shootings since Wednesday, including one fatal one early Saturday morning. Over the weekend, 19-year-old Benny Lynch, 20-year-old Jonathan Swoope, 32-year-old Lawaide Labon, 25-year-old Morris Gandy, Gonzalo Hernandez-Guerta, 23-year-old Parris Harrison and 44-year-old Johnny Dudley were all shot and killed. Brendan Scanlon, 25, was stabbed. No arrests have been made in any of the shootings, but Kirk Tobolski has......

A group of partygoers is suing the Chicago Police Department for $10 million for what they say was misconduct and an illegal search of a La Familia Motorcycle Club in Logan Square. The suit claims police officers used stun grenades, held people at gun point for three hours, stole $3,000, and performed inappropriate and humiliating strip searches on female guests. Surveillance video shows SWAT officers pointing assault rifles at people who are on their knees......

A 22-year-old South Sid man has been charged with killingfive people in Chatham in April. Police say Torolan Williams was overheard talking about the murders, and they found a TV stolen from the scene of the crime in Williams's house. Police are currently looking for a second suspect. [S-T]......

An update on the Red Line stoppage: a man was struck and killed by a Red Line train just south of the Chinatown stop at about 4:30 p.m., his body still pinned under the train. Red Line trains are once again running on their designated tracks between Howard and Roosevelt, where they then run on the Green Line tracks to the 35th-Bronzeville Green Line station. [Trib, S-T, CTA] Violence in the City: A man was......

An Illinois woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole today on four counts of murder and one count of intentional homicide in the death of the fetus. Tiffany Hall, 26, pleaded guilty to killing Jimella Tunstall; Tunstall's fetus, which Hall cut out of Tunstall's womb; and Tunstall's three children, DeMond, 7, Ivan, 2, and Jinella, 1. Hall pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. On September 15, 2006, Hall beat Jimella Tunstall with......

R Kelly's defense called private investigator Jack Palladino today, who said one of the prosecution's star witnesses once attempted to extort Kelly. [Trib] Nine people were shot last night and this morning in seven separate incidents. [S-T] A Joliet bar is being punished for violating liquor codes that ban certain forms sexually-oriented entertainment after a guy in a G-string and chaps performed. "Undercover police said they saw the dancer take money from women at the......

Woodstock's Kirk M. Locher was released form jail this morning after posting $750 bail. Locher was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm after he fired shots in his home over the weekend, allegedly shooting and killing his yellow Labrador retriever. Police say additional charges may be filed, including at least one count of haunting our future nightmares. And now, to cleanse your brain from the huge bummer that is a dude shooting a dog,......

Erika Prince, 32, was shot and killed yesterday near 87th and Euclid. Prince was a special education teacher at Arthur Dixon elementary school, where she'd taught for the last six years, and she herself was an alumn. Her nine-year-old daughter is an honor student there, too. Prince was shot while parked outside a relative's house, while her niece and two children went inside to pick up their things. Police haven't identified a motive yet and......

A Chicago man was arrested over the weekend in Merrillville, Indiana for attempting to kill his wife on their honeymoon. Jose Cuevas Jr., 37, is accused of holding Marbelin Jeronimo's head underwater in a hot tub in their room and biting flesh off her arm while they were staying Friday at a Days Inn in the town south of Gary. ... Jeronimo said he became enraged at her when she refused to his demand for......

Police say two sailors kidnapped a cab driver, carjacked his cab and drove it around Gurnee before setting the car on fire. Aaron Couch, 21, and Terry Gappa, 20, both face felony counts of theft of services, assault, theft of a vehicle and criminal damage to property. Couch and Gappa hailed the cab near Union Station and wanted to go the Naval Station Great Lakes, which is about 40 miles away. As the cabbie was......

With the dramatic uptick of Chicago Public Schools students caught in the crossfire of violence and the approach of summer, worries about the safety of students remains high across the city. One teacher, Marisol Sierra of McKinley Park Elementary, is taking a proactive approach by teaching her preschool class on how to stay safe in these dangerous times and is being rewarded for her efforts on June 3 as one of five recipients of the......

Only a day after ABC’s 20/20’s “Are Cops Above the Law?” exposé, where Chicago police were highlighted for their recent rash of drunken cop beaters, another cop is on the beat, so to speak. Gerald Callahan, an off-duty Chicago cop, was arrested for allegedly attacking two patrons at Chambers Seafood Grill & Chop in Niles. Niles police were called to the lounge about 1:50 a.m. Saturday morning, but Callahan had fled. At 2:30 a.m., he......

Today's long read: Chicagoist fave Alex Kotlowitz's captivating portrait of CeaseFire, the anti-gun violence organization whose founder, epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, believes violence should be treated like an infectious disease. In his book “The Bottom Billion,” Paul Collier argues that one of the characteristics of many developing countries that suffer from entrenched poverty is what he calls the conflict trap, the inability to escape a cycle of violence, usually in the guise of civil wars. Could......

Photo by blue(skied) We'll keep our eyes peeled tomorrow for new designs for the Children's Museum proposed Grant Park digs. [Crain's] The City is going to spend $1.5 million on 1,000 summer jobs for teenagers. It's one of several city-organized plans in place to help curb youth violence this summer. [S-T] Emil Jones wants a pay raise. [Trib] Northwestern has rescinded its invitation to award Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright an honorary Doctorate of Sacred......

A man police called mentally unstable randomly attacked six people in the Loop yesterday, including a 75-year-old woman and ABC 7 anchor Cheryl Burton. No one was seriously hurt, and police have the suspect in custody. The attacker punched a woman in the face and head and threw her to the ground near Washington and Dearborn. He assault five more people as he ran away, until police caught him on Randolph. He hasn't been charged......

Five people were shot and killed in a residence on the South Side this afternoon. Police say the incident might have been a domestic dispute, and that all the victims were adults. [CBS 2]......

A 19-year-old woman was charged with murder last night after she allegedly let her 5-month-old daughter drown in a bathtub because she didn't want to be a mother. Rozlynn Rodgers initially told authorities that Makalah had drowned accidentally, but later allegedly confessed. Rodgers told police "she didn't want to be a mom anymore because she couldn't go to parties if she had to take care of the baby," Assistant State's Atty. Mary Anna Planey said.......