“By signing this bill, law enforcement agencies will have the tools to respond to criminal activity in a timely and efficient manner — ensuring the safety and security of our residents, while holding perpetrators accountable,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

Tyshon Brownlee, 19, has been charged with one count each of attempted first-degree murder and attempted robbery involving the discharge of a firearm stemming from the non-fatal May 6 shooting of 23-year-old culinary student Dakotah Earley in Lincoln Park.

According to new data from the Chicago Police Department, there have been 239 homicides and 971 shootings in the city this year through May.

Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. Advocates argue that such a limit might have prevented the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead and the racially motivated supermarket attack in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10.

This holiday weekend's shooting and homicide totals are both significantly higher than Memorial Day last year, when three people were killed and 29 others were shot.

A federal judge said Tuesday that he is preparing to issue a nearly 200-page ruling in the corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke (14th Ward) that could determine whether federal prosecutors can use thousands of hours of the powerful politician’s telephone conversations.

His comments came a day after he traveled to the shattered Texas community of Uvalde, mourning privately for three-plus hours with anguished families grieving for the 19 children and two teachers who died in the shooting. Faced with chants of “do something” as he departed a church service, Biden pledged: “We will.”

Nineteen children and two teachers were ultimately shot dead in the roughly 80 minutes the gunman spent inside the school in Uvalde, Texas. This account of the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook is based on law enforcement’s timeline, records and numerous interviews with Uvalde residents in the hours and days after the massacre.

George Floyd’s death reignited a movement for civil rights and calls for police to be held accountable. Since then, several states, including Minnesota and Illinois, have passed police reform legislation.

The frustration, anger and questions about the response from police grew deeper on Friday after authorities revealed that despite repeated 911 calls from students and teachers, the school district’s police chief had told more than a dozen officers to wait in a school hallway. 

By Friday, authorities acknowledged that students and teachers repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while the police chief told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway at Robb Elementary School. Officials said he believed that the suspect was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and that there was no longer an active attack.

“I feel confident in the plan that we have for this weekend, and really for the summer," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.

As part of a Chicago Tonight’s special series, “Turning Pain into Purpose,” we are joined by two mothers affected by gun violence to discuss the work they’re doing in the community.

Violence and other trauma have become common enough for schoolchildren that Chicago Public Schools developed a 15-page guide called “The Day After,” to help teachers and staff coach students through processing painful events.

Travis Cook, 53, has been charged with first-degree murder stemming from the killing of a 43-year-old man inside a train car downtown. The victim’s name was not released during a hearing Thursday, during which Cook was ordered held without bail.

The excessive force lawsuit says the seventh grader, who had been a passenger, was complying with orders from several officers running behind him through the grounds of a West Side gas station and screaming for him to put up his hands.