Federal prosecutors in Chicago have charged Michigan brothers Donald Henkel, 61, and Mark Henkel, 66, along with 59-year-old Raymond Paparella, with mail fraud or wire fraud.
Crime


Brianna Gibbs, 28, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Sunday morning killing of 27-year-old Tyrone Pittman following a physical altercation in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

The lone homicide victim was a 27-year-old man who was found just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning in the 8400 block of South Aberdeen Street.

Chicago officials annually take in hundreds of guns through buyback programs. But decades of research shows such programs don’t reduce gun violence, in large part because they don’t result in guns being taken from people who aren’t supposed to have them.

Pretice Phillips, 46, was held without bail following a hearing Friday after he was charged with one count of first-degree murder in the March shooting death of 32-year-old Kevin Change.

Ocie Banks Jr., 33, was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder stemming from the shooting deaths of his father 79-year-old Ocie Banks Sr., and mother 61-year-old Sheila Banks.

Olivia Bryant, 33, has pleaded not guilty during her arraignment this week in federal court in Chicago after she was charged with three counts of theft from the U.S. mail.

In their final days of the annual spring session, members of Illinois’ General Assembly approved a series of bills targeting public safety.

According to the Chicago Police Department, 24 people were shot in 27 separate shooting incidents across the city between 6 p.m Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The Biden administration will come out with its long-awaited ghost gun rule — aimed at reining in privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes — as soon as Monday, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Alexis Del Toro, 23, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the December 2021 killing of Baghirov Gurban, who was fatally shot while driving in the 5500 block of North Kedzie Avenue.

On Monday, Democrats unveiled a series of bills they described as “pro law enforcement,” even as a top Republican rebuffed the effort as “trying to rewrite history.” Legislators are set to adjourn their spring session nearly two months earlier than normal, in order to spend spring and summer on the campaign trail.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a series of new initiatives to improve public safety, including a new Home and Business Protection Rebate Program through which residents can get rebates to defray the cost of security cameras and video storage.

“Many of these guns have been linked to shootings in the Chicago area in which multiple people have been injured and several killed,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday.

March's 178 shootings and 37 homicides marked declines of more than 20% compared with the same month in 2021, Chicago Police Department data published Friday shows.

Led by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, Illinois Democratic leaders unveiled their plan to bid for the convention on Wednesday. At an unrelated news conference Thursday morning, Lightfoot began showcasing Chicago’s attributes.