Daywatch: DuPage County mass shooting puts spotlight on ‘lost community’
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Good morning, Chicago.
Even now, more than 100 days later, the terrifying scenarios play on a loop in Twanda Carroll’s mind.
What if her apartment hadn’t been empty that night in June? What if her three young grandchildren had been staying with her like they did every summer? What if she and her daughter had decided not to spend an extra night with family in Wisconsin?
“I still get emotional,” Carroll, 51, said recently. “I’m just so hurt I start crying. What if something would have happened to my grandbabies, or my daughter, or me?”
Shortly before 12:30 a.m. on June 18, in a strip mall parking lot across from Carroll’s apartment off Illinois Route 83 near Willowbrook, a mass shooting killed one person and injured at least 22 others gathered for what had been billed as a Juneteenth celebration.
One of the bullets fired that night shattered Carroll’s patio window and lodged in the wall next to her living room couch. A second broke her bedroom window and tore through her closet into her kitchen wall.
“When I come home and think about how the bullets came through my house,” Carroll said, “I don’t see how we could have made it.”
Four months later, Carroll and others say the response to the mass shooting has only reinforced long-simmering feelings of neglect among the 3,000-plus residents clustered in apartment and condominium complexes in an unincorporated area on DuPage County’s southeastern edge.
Read more on this story by Jonathan Bullington.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
Farmers in Illinois and around the country seek more protections under new farm bill as climate change threatens livelihoods, health and crops
First-generation farmers Rachael and Jesse Smedberg grow hemp on their 120-acre organic and regenerative farm, Tulip Tree Gardens in Beecher. Five years ago, the couple decided to buy the farm near the Indiana border, and they have since been experimenting with sustainable techniques.
After the expiration of the 2018 federal farm bill last month, those involved in the nation’s agricultural industry are pushing for the new bill to better protect crops and the people who grow them as a rapidly changing climate threatens livelihoods, human health and, consequently, the entire food system.
First month of bail reform: Challenges, benefits and a reduced jail population in Cook County
Cook County Judge Charles Beach looked at a defendant accused of armed violence and other felonies and explained to him that as a judge, he must determine whether the man poses a danger to the public.
“That is a little bit more of a difficult question for me but I do believe you are,” he said, referencing the type of weapon the man was accused of having. “That is no longer a weapon of defense. It is a weapon of aggression capable of mass harm … the possession of body armor adds a lot.”
The defendant, who was ordered detained in Cook County Jail, was among those who stood for revamped detention hearings across Illinois during the first month under the new pretrial system.
Mayor’s office career center is tackling unemployment, underemployment in the disability community
Walking into the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities Career Center on a rainy weekday afternoon on the Near West Side from an adjacent parking lot requires fewer steps than you would imagine.
That brings to mind what career counselor Carly Englander says: “The disability population is the only marginalized group that anyone can join at any point in time,” she said. “You can be born with a disability, but you could also become injured later on in life and become disabled, so the idea of universal design, making something that fits everyone — making a space wheelchair accessible is nice.”
X-rays on Justin Fields’ hand were negative, but the Chicago Bears wait to see if he or Tyson Bagent will start next
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields wanted to return to Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings, coach Matt Eberflus said.
But Fields couldn’t grip the football because of the right hand injury he suffered during a third-quarter sack and was sidelined for the rest of the 19-13 Bears loss.
Whether Fields will miss more time is now the major question. The X-rays on Fields’ hand were negative for any fracture, but the Bears are awaiting the results of an MRI. Fox Sports and NFL Network reported Fields dislocated his thumb.
Review: How much are you willing to pay for a taco? Spendy taco showdown underway in the West Loop.
Tribune critic Nick Kindelsperger wants to know how much are you willing to pay for a taco? Three recently opened Mexican restaurants in the West Loop are, perhaps unintentionally, testing the public’s appetite — $4.98 tacos are the minimum here, and you’ll find some going for much more. If you believe that great tacos always need to be cheap, brace yourself for disappointment.
