SHAREA man from downstate Galesburg who allegedly appears on video rioting, looting and urging attacks against the police has been hit with what appears to be the first federal criminal charge related to the violence this weekend in Chicago.Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, has been charged in an eight-page criminal complaint in federal court in Minnesota with civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of unregistered destructive devices. The complaint alleges Rupert participated in looting and rioting in Minneapolis in response to the police killing of George Floyd before moving on to...…SHAREA man from downstate Galesburg who allegedly appears on video rioting, looting and urging attacks against the police has been hit with what appears to be the first federal criminal charge related to the violence this weekend in Chicago.Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, has been charged in an eight-page criminal complaint in federal court in Minnesota with civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of unregistered destructive devices. The complaint alleges Rupert participated in looting and rioting in Minneapolis in response to the police killing of George Floyd before moving on to...WW…

SHAREThe honeymoon didn’t last long.Just one day after he was sworn in as the new leader of the Chicago Police Department, Supt. David Brown found himself apologizing to several aldermen from the North and Northwest sides for a plan that took dozens of officers from their wards Wednesday and shipped them to the West Side to curb gun crime and help enforce the state’s stay-at-home order.Brown had a conference call Thursday afternoon with more than a half dozen aldermen whose wards were affected by the change in deployment.“He came out and apologized immediately and said, ‘I’m sorry that I...…SHAREThe honeymoon didn’t last long.Just one day after he was sworn in as the new leader of the Chicago Police Department, Supt. David Brown found himself apologizing to several aldermen from the North and Northwest sides for a plan that took dozens of officers from their wards Wednesday and shipped them to the West Side to curb gun crime and help enforce the state’s stay-at-home order.Brown had a conference call Thursday afternoon with more than a half dozen aldermen whose wards were affected by the change in deployment.“He came out and apologized immediately and said, ‘I’m sorry that I...WW…

SHAREGov. J.B. Pritzker is planning to obtain millions of masks and gloves from China and bring those supplies back to Illinois on charter jets —but he’s keeping the details secret out of fear the Trump administration might seize the cargo for the federal stockpile, sources said Tuesday.Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Tuesday that the state has spent more than $174 million on purchases related to COVID-19, including supplies such as ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns, protective eyewear and hand sanitizer.Among the list of expenditures: two invoices, each for $888,275, to...…SHAREGov. J.B. Pritzker is planning to obtain millions of masks and gloves from China and bring those supplies back to Illinois on charter jets —but he’s keeping the details secret out of fear the Trump administration might seize the cargo for the federal stockpile, sources said Tuesday.Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Tuesday that the state has spent more than $174 million on purchases related to COVID-19, including supplies such as ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns, protective eyewear and hand sanitizer.Among the list of expenditures: two invoices, each for $888,275, to...WW…

SHAREA police watchdog agency Thursday released a video showing a Chicago police officer shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo, whose seemingly empty hands were raised —but who appeared to have a gun in his hand just a moment earlier.The officer who shot Adam was wearing a body camera that shows him chasing the teen down an alley in Little Village at about 2:38 a.m. on March 29. The officer orders him to stop and show his hands.A slow-motion version of the video from that body camera shows Adam standing sideways in a large gap in a wooden fence with what looks like a gun in one of his hands...…SHAREA police watchdog agency Thursday released a video showing a Chicago police officer shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo, whose seemingly empty hands were raised —but who appeared to have a gun in his hand just a moment earlier.The officer who shot Adam was wearing a body camera that shows him chasing the teen down an alley in Little Village at about 2:38 a.m. on March 29. The officer orders him to stop and show his hands.A slow-motion version of the video from that body camera shows Adam standing sideways in a large gap in a wooden fence with what looks like a gun in one of his hands...WW…

SHAREThe Chicago Police Department is poised to cancel days off and switch officers to 12-hour shifts in preparation for possible demonstrations after the release of the Adam Toledo shooting video and the Derek Chauvin verdict.Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said police Supt. David Brown told aldermen during a briefing Thursday on police preparedness that he expected a tenfold increase in unrest this summer.That would be monumental, considering the two devastating rounds of looting last summer that started in downtown, River North and Lincoln Park and spread to commercial corridors on the South and...…SHAREThe Chicago Police Department is poised to cancel days off and switch officers to 12-hour shifts in preparation for possible demonstrations after the release of the Adam Toledo shooting video and the Derek Chauvin verdict.Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said police Supt. David Brown told aldermen during a briefing Thursday on police preparedness that he expected a tenfold increase in unrest this summer.That would be monumental, considering the two devastating rounds of looting last summer that started in downtown, River North and Lincoln Park and spread to commercial corridors on the South and...WW…

SHAREMayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Monday to hunt down and hold accountable adults responsible for “putting a gun into the hands” of a 13-year-old shot and killed by Chicago police last week.In promising to hold adults accountable for the circumstances surrounding Adam Toledo’s death, Lightfoot went further than the Chicago Police Department has been willing to go.The department has said only that a gun was found near Toledo’s body. Neither police nor the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is investigating the shooting, has said Toledo was holding the gun or aiming it at police...…SHAREMayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Monday to hunt down and hold accountable adults responsible for “putting a gun into the hands” of a 13-year-old shot and killed by Chicago police last week.In promising to hold adults accountable for the circumstances surrounding Adam Toledo’s death, Lightfoot went further than the Chicago Police Department has been willing to go.The department has said only that a gun was found near Toledo’s body. Neither police nor the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is investigating the shooting, has said Toledo was holding the gun or aiming it at police...WW…

SHAREChicago police leaders have issued an “officer safety alert” to cops warning that the department’s narcotics unit has learned that factions of the Latin Kings in the Ogden patrol district on the Southwest Side “were instructed by ranking members to shoot at unmarked Chicago police vehicles.”The alert, sent out Thursday, said factions of the gang planned to retaliate following the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo at about 2 a.m. March 29 in an alley in the 2400 block of South Sawyer Avenue. The alert warned that members of the gang were likely to shoot at unmarked...…SHAREChicago police leaders have issued an “officer safety alert” to cops warning that the department’s narcotics unit has learned that factions of the Latin Kings in the Ogden patrol district on the Southwest Side “were instructed by ranking members to shoot at unmarked Chicago police vehicles.”The alert, sent out Thursday, said factions of the gang planned to retaliate following the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo at about 2 a.m. March 29 in an alley in the 2400 block of South Sawyer Avenue. The alert warned that members of the gang were likely to shoot at unmarked...WW…

SHAREWhen he was a math student at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, Ted Hilk’s online profile included a famous English verse called “The Fifth of November.”“Remember, remember! The fifth of November. The gunpowder treason and plot,” the poem begins, referring to Guy Fawkes, who was arrested while guarding explosives plotters hid under the House of Lords in London more than 400 years ago.Hilk’s father Wayne Hilk said his son — found dead Wednesday in a Streeterville apartment where police said they also discovered explosive materials —didn’t find a dark meaning...…SHAREWhen he was a math student at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, Ted Hilk’s online profile included a famous English verse called “The Fifth of November.”“Remember, remember! The fifth of November. The gunpowder treason and plot,” the poem begins, referring to Guy Fawkes, who was arrested while guarding explosives plotters hid under the House of Lords in London more than 400 years ago.Hilk’s father Wayne Hilk said his son — found dead Wednesday in a Streeterville apartment where police said they also discovered explosive materials —didn’t find a dark meaning...WW…

SHAREIt was one of the searing images of the rioting in downtown Chicago last summer: a man wearing a Joker mask standing in front of a police sport-utility vehicle engulfed in flames.The graffiti-strewn SUV was one of seven Chicago Police Department vehicles and one CTA vehicle torched in the Loop last May 30. More than 60 other arson fires were reported across the city over the next few days of anti-police rioting sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a white police officer kept his knee on the neck of Floyd, who was Black.The fires set downtown by rioters after...…SHAREIt was one of the searing images of the rioting in downtown Chicago last summer: a man wearing a Joker mask standing in front of a police sport-utility vehicle engulfed in flames.The graffiti-strewn SUV was one of seven Chicago Police Department vehicles and one CTA vehicle torched in the Loop last May 30. More than 60 other arson fires were reported across the city over the next few days of anti-police rioting sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a white police officer kept his knee on the neck of Floyd, who was Black.The fires set downtown by rioters after...WW…

SHAREBallistics tests show the .45-caliber handgun used in a Jan. 9 terror spree that started on the South Side and ended in Evanston —leaving four people dead and three wounded — had been used in previous “shooting incidents” in Chicago, police said.Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said he didn’t know whether anyone was killed or wounded in the earlier shootingsor when and where they took place. Investigators have tested the gun that authorities say Jason Nightengale used in the spree earlier this month and have linked it to bullet casings found at other shooting...…SHAREBallistics tests show the .45-caliber handgun used in a Jan. 9 terror spree that started on the South Side and ended in Evanston —leaving four people dead and three wounded — had been used in previous “shooting incidents” in Chicago, police said.Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said he didn’t know whether anyone was killed or wounded in the earlier shootingsor when and where they took place. Investigators have tested the gun that authorities say Jason Nightengale used in the spree earlier this month and have linked it to bullet casings found at other shooting...WW…