The ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO – NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin was an innocent bystander, police said, pushing her baby in a stroller near a Chicago school where she intended to register her children when she was fatally shot Friday. Nykea Aldridge’s famous relative, who grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs, tweeted to his nearly 6 million followers about her death, saying Friday it was an “act of senseless gun violence” and posting Saturday morning that Chicago needs “more help& more hands on deck.” Wade ended both days of tweets with the hashtag “EnoughIsEnough.” The 32-year-old mother of four recently relocated to an area on the city’s South Side, her family said. She was near the school, which is about a mile and a half southwest of the University of Chicago, when two males walked up and fired shots at a third man but hit Aldridge in the head and arm. She wasn’t the intended target, police said. Police said Saturday afternoon that two “people of interest” were being
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Report: Black men, boys shot most by Chicago police
CHICAGO – After threatening to sue, the Chicago Tribune has obtained data from the city’s police department that tracks every time an officer has opened fire in the city over the past six years. The vast majority of those hit were black men or boys. There were 435 police shootings from 2010 through 2015, in which officers killed 92 people and wounded 170 others. In all, officers fired 2,623 bullets. The newspaper’s findings show that about four out of every five people shot were African-American males. It found that about half of the officers involved were African-American or Hispanic and most of them had years of experience and were not rookies.
AP photo
Bulls player Dwyane Wade speaks during a news conference July 29 in Chicago.
questioned by detectives but no one has been charged in the shooting. Authorities are investigating whether the encounter between the men was a robbery, possibly involving a driver from a ridesharing company, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Chicago has been plagued by gun violence for years, especially in a few South and West Side neighborhoods. This July alone, there were 65 homicides – the most that month since 2006.
The review also said the number of police shootings has declined over the period, from more than 100 in 2011 to 44 last year. The city is making major changes to the department and various oversight bodies after the uproar over a 2014 shooting in which a white officer fired 16 bullets into a black teenager. Video of that fatal shooting, which was released upon a judge’s order in November, contradicted officers’ accounts that the teen lunged at them threateningly with a knife. The officer who fired those shots has been charged with first-degree murder. Most of the police shootings took place in South and West Side neighborhoods beset by gang violence and poverty. At least one of every five shootings involved plainclothes tactical officers charged with taking on gangs, the newspaper found. Police union President Dean Angelo Sr. defended the department’s record against accusations of racial bias.
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Wade, whose charitable organization, Wade’s World Foundation, does community outreach in the Chicago area, signed with the Bulls in July after 13 years with the Miami Heat. He and his mother, pastor Jolinda Wade, participated Thursday via satellite in a town hall meeting in Chicago on gun violence hosted by ESPN. “My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough,” he tweeted Friday. Wade also tweeted Saturday morning: “The city of Chicago is hurting. We need more help& more hands on deck. Not for me and my family but for the future of our world. The YOUTH!” adding in a following tweet, “These young kids are screaming for help!!! #EnoughIsEnough.” Outside the emergency room where Aldridge was pronounced dead, Jolinda Wade clutched her sister and spoke for the family as mourners stood in a circle holding hands and praying. She said she’d participated in the town hall meeting “never knowing that the next day we would be the ones that would
Court grappling with unions, free speech, inflatable rats
CHICAGO – Enormous rats are making their way through the federal court system. But they’re not wet-nosed, living rodents. They’re rubber, inflatable ones. Unions deploy such rat replicas outside businesses they have disputes with, and Chicago’s 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month addressed whether restricting their use violates free-speech rights. A lower court sided with Grand Chute, Wisconsin, ruling safety and construction ordinances justified the town’s removal of a 15foot rat outside a car dealership. Chicago’s higher court nixed that finding and returned the case for further litigation. Appeals court Judge Richard Posner partially dissented. He called for a decisive finding that the town violated the union’s free-speech rights. He wrote some may find the blow-up rats “repulsive” but that they’re clearly “akin to a political poster,” so constitute protected speech.
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actually be living and experiencing it.” “We’re still going to try to help and empower people like the one who senselessly shot my niece in the head,” Jolinda Wade said. “We’re going to try to help these people to transform their minds and give them a different direction.” It is not the first time Dwyane Wade’s family in Chicago has been affected by gun violence. His nephew, Darin Johnson, was shot twice in the leg in 2012 but recovered. Chicago had recorded 381 homicides by the end of July, up 30 percent from the same period of 2015. Its murder rate is higher than the more populous cities of New York and Los Angeles. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has spoken about the city’s violence, and tweeted about Aldridge’s death Saturday morning. He first posted, “Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!,” and then tweeted, “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers.”
Northwest Indiana seeking to lure Chicago commuters
BEVERLY SHORES, Ind. – Indiana cities along Lake Michigan’s southern shore hope to lure more Chicago residents with revitalized downtowns and a new commuter train track. The Chicago Tribune reported that officials received federal approval in May to hire engineers for preliminary plans to add a second track to the South Shore Line. Transportation officials hope the additions will slash the commute from Michigan City to Chicago to just one hour. Making the commute easier is a top priority for Indiana officials. Right now, just one track runs between Gary and Michigan City. “We’ve got two-way traffic on a one-way street,” said Michael Noland, CEO of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. Officials hope that attractions such as the area’s beach access and low-key lifestyle will also
draw millennials into places such as Michigan City, Indiana.
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New corn disease found in northern Illinois field
URBANA – University of Illinois researchers say a new type of corn disease has been found in northern Illinois. The university said in a news release Friday that bacterial leaf streak was found in a field in DeKalb County. Confirmation of the bacterial disease brings the number of states where it has been found to nine. Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas are among them. Not much is known about bacterial leaf streak, including how damaging it may be or how to treat it. Assistant Dean for Agriculture Suzanne Bissonnette said anyone who suspects they have found the disease in a field should send a sample to the U of I Plant Clinic to help researchers figure out how widely it has spread.
– Wire reports
25 The Herald-News / TheHerald-News.com • Sunday, August 28, 2016
STATE After cousin’s fatal shooting, Dwyane Wade speaks out