William Lee

A convicted killer sentenced to life in prison for a Christmas Eve slaying outside a chicken restaurant has died, authorities said. Lee Cration died Thursday at the Menard Correctional Center, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. A spokesperson could not provide details on the cause of death. Cration died exactly a week before his 62nd birthday. A Cook County judge sentenced Cration to life in prison in 2011, two years after prosecutors said he targeted Ralph Elliott, 79, outside…

A former Chicago police officer is sitting in Cook County Jail following a whirlwind week that included him being convicted of domestic battery, quitting the force and being newly charged with illegally entering his ex-girlfriend’s home and attacking her new boyfriend, according to prosecutors. But before Korey Giles began fighting with his romantic rival, an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s deputy, prosecutors said he took nude photos of the man as he slept in the bed with his ex-girlfriend, als…

A DuPage County judge on Thursday ordered a Lombard man held in custody pending trial after authorities accused him of threatening to shoot two Muslim men outside his suburban apartment building. Larry York, 46, faces two counts of hate crime, a Class 4 felony, for the Tuesday night incident outside the West Point apartments, according to a news release from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office. One of the victims arrived at the apartment complex on South Finley Road around 8:30 p.m. an…

Chicago police on Tuesday confirmed that investigators were looking into a viral video of a Sunday game day brawl at Soldier Field. The attack took place around 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the stadium, according to police, as the Bears played a game they would lose to the Minnesota Vikings. In an image from video to the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, an unidentified man wearing a Justin Fields jersey and a Bears pom cap punches a shorter man from behind, knocking him to the ground. In…

A Chicago Transit Authority supervisor was struck by gunfire Tuesday afternoon following a minor traffic crash involving a bus in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood. The incident occurred following an accident where a passing bus struck the door of a passenger vehicle just before 2 p.m. near the 3600 block of West 47th Street, according to police and the CTA. No injuries were reported on the bus or in the car, officials said. The supervisor was called in to assess the situation. While he was…

A Near South Side man who allegedly fled home confinement in 2020 while awaiting trial for several separate felony charges, including two separate sex assaults, was arrested earlier this week in Portland, Oregon, according to Cook County sheriff’s officials. Rene Chandler, 34, had been missing from Cook County since April 2020 when he disappeared after posting a $500 bail after a judge granted his release from jail as officials began releasing supposedly low-risk detainees as COVID-19 closures s…

A woman who was found dead in an industrial area in the Hegewisch neighborhood died as the result of a violent assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The unresponsive woman’s body was discovered around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1400 block of E. 130th Street, according to Chicago police. The woman was unidentified, but believed to be between 30 and 45 years old, police said. An autopsy performed Wednesday found that the woman died of multiple injuries in an assault and he…

Matt Rodriguez, a high-performing student who quickly rose through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department before becoming the first Latino superintendent, has died. Chicago police announced Rodriguez’s death at age 87 Wednesday evening on the social media site formerly known as Twitter. In 1992, Rodriguez became the first Latino superintendent in city history, beating out 41 others who applied. A deputy superintendent at the time, Rodriguez had been a finalist for superintendent twice before…

An autopsy performed Saturday confirmed the drowning of a 12-year-old boy who disappeared beneath the waves of Lake Michigan just offshore of a Rogers Park neighborhood beach. The boy entered the lake from Jarvis Beach near the 1200 block of West Jarvis Avenue just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, but was underwater for an “extended amount of time” before he was pulled ashore, according to Chicago police. The child, Fred Elouga, also of Rogers Park, was rushed to Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical con…

A DuPage County judge on Thursday ordered a teenager from Maywood held in custody on felony charges related to a high-speed chase through the western suburbs that reached 132 miles per hour, authorities said. The 17-year-old, whose name is being withheld because of his age, faces felony possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, along with several misdemeanors, according to prosecutors. The youth was arrested early Wednesday morning following a near…