Home invasion in Jefferson Park

Two women were bound while men ransacked their Northwest Side homes the last four days.
It’s not clear if the two incidents are related. The most recent happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday and the other around 11:30 p.m. Friday. The home are three miles apart.
In the first incident, in the 5200 block of North Mobile Avenue in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, a woman heard a knock and, assuming it was her husband, opened her door. Two men pushed their way inside but the woman later told police she heard three different voices.
The men tied her with a cord they found in the home and put her in the back of the house while they ransacked rooms and stole money and electronics.

Ex-boyfriend charged with woman's Thanksgiving slaying

A mother of three on her way to work Thanksgiving Day was stabbed to death outside her Northwest Side home by her jealous ex-boyfriend, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.
Maria Gonzalez, 39, had just left her apartment about 5 a.m. Nov. 28 and was about to get into her car when she was attacked by Alberto Gaytan, 42, with whom she had a 4-year-old daughter, said Assistant State's Attorney Maura White.
After leaving Gaytan about three months ago, Gonzalez hadn't told him about her new address on a quiet block in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, White said.
Gaytan "had threatened to kill (Gonzalez) if she left him for someone else" .
Witnesses in the 4800 block of North Moody Avenue heard Gonzalez scream for help after Gaytan threw Gonzalez to the ground, straddled her and stabbed her about 11 times. One wound to her neck was nearly deep enough to decapitate Gonzalez.
Witnesses saw Gaytan grab Gonzalez's purse and drive off in his red 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier. Police recovered the vehicle, and tests showed Gonzalez's blood was on the driver's-side door handle and window.
Soon after the attack, Gaytan was arrested at his home in the 3000 block of West Ainslie Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood. He denied knowing where his ex-girlfriend lived but had a card with her address written on the back.
Gaytan, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally, was wanted on an active immigration warrant. He had been deported in 2008.
He was held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the McHenry County Jail on that charge until the results of DNA testing on the blood were released. Gaytan was arrested by Chicago police at the jail Wednesday, the same day a Cook County judge signed a warrant for his arrest.

39-year-old woman found dead with throat slashed in jefferson Park

Police have launched a homicide investigation after finding a 39-year-old woman dead in the Northwest Side's Jefferson Park neighborhood this morning.
About 5 a.m., officers found the woman with visible trauma to her body in the 4800 block of North Moody Avenue.
The woman was identified as Maria Gonzalez who lived on the block.
She was found with her throat slashed.
The woman had lived in a basement apartment for about a month and was on her way to Dunkin' Donuts to begin her shift this morning.
The suspect was about 5-feet-10 inches tall, 225 pounds, wearing a black hoodie, he had a mustache, a goatee and had a red jacket on, black sweat pants and white gym shoes.

Woman accused of tossing 4 newborn pups into pond

A Northwest Side woman is accused of hurling her boyfriend's four newborn puppies into a pond and drowning them.
Frances Blake, 45, of the 3500 block of North Narragansett Avenue, was charged Thursday with aggravated animal cruelty and animal torture.
Police say the incident occurred on July 3. A neighbor told officers she saw Blake "tossing four helpless two-day old puppies into a pond'' in the back of Blake's home.  The next day, the neighbor pulled the puppies from the water and called the Department of Animal Care and Control.
Police went to her home with a search warrant on July 13 and heard several dogs "whining and yelping in distress,'' but they could not make contact with Blake.
On Thursday, officers were able to get into the home and found seven other dogs: an 18-month-old white male "with visible wounds," a 3-year old brown and white "emaciated female," and five 17-day old puppies.
"That's my girlfriend. She killed my four puppies,'' Blake's boyfriend told Jefferson Park officers in the home.
At the police station after she was arrested, Blake told police, "If I did it, I don't remember doing it,'' the report said.
The surviving dogs were turned over to Animal Care and Control.

Man held on $250K after bus driver hit by hot coffee

A Chicago man faces felony battery charges after he allegedly threw hot coffee in a CTA driver's face and assaulted him Friday after missing the bus.
Quintin M. Jackson, 32, is charged with aggravated battery to a transit employee and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm in connection to the incident, which left the driver with second-degree burns that could lead to permanent scarring
The 49-year-old victim was taken to Loyola University Medical Center's burn unit after the attack and was treated for severe burns to the face, neck and arms.
Jackson, holding a hot cup of coffee, approached the victim in his parked bus Friday at the Jefferson Park Transit Center on the 4900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue.
Jackson began berating the driver, accusing him of previously not stopping to allow him on the bus.
The driver told Jackson he had not seen him and that Jackson had not been at a valid stop.
Jackson became irate and threw the scalding coffee on the victim's face, temporarily blinding him in his left eye.
Jackson then jumped on the bus driver and began punching and choking him.
The driver eventually got free of Jackson and ran off the bus, with Jackson in pursuit.
The victim called the police as he was running from Jackson, and Jackson hid behind some garbage cans in a nearby alley.
Police arrived and returned to the bus a few minutes later with Jackson.
Both the victim and another witness fingered him as the attacker.
"That's me, bitch!" Jackson screamed at the victim, court records state. "I got you, bitch!"
The incident was captured on CTA surveillance video.
After his arrest, Jackson admitted to police that he tried to flag the bus down, but he fell and hurt himself as he chased the bus.
This angered Jackson, O'Brien said, and he admitted to police that he bought the hot coffee, confronted the driver and threw it in his face.

Irate CTA passenger burns bus driver with hot coffee

A CTA bus driver was seriously injured when a passenger at the Jefferson Park bus terminal threw hot coffee in the driver's face after accusing the driver of failing to pick him up earlier.
The driver was injured at the Jefferson Park transit center, 4917 N. Milwaukee Avenue, about 10 p.m.
A passenger threw coffee in the driver's face, and the passenger was arrested. The driver was being treated at the Loyola University Medical Center's burn unit
The driver of the 85A/North Central Avenue bus was at the terminal, but in service, when the passenger got on and accused the driver of passing him up on the street earlierLukidis.
The driver explained to the customer that where the customer had wanted to be picked up was not a stop, so the driver hadn't realized the customer wanted to be picked up there. The customer then got angry and threw hot liquid, apparently coffee

Police shoot teen in Jefferson Park

Police in the Jefferson Park neighborhood shot a teenage boy Friday morning after he swung a board at one of them.
The boy, either 16 or 17 years old, was shot twice and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with wounds to his arm and leg.
It's not clear why he ran from two uniformed Jefferson Park district officers, who approached him and two others as they stood in an alley near the 4400 block of North Mulligan Avenue about 12:30 a.m.
Police stopped the boy and two others because they were hanging out in an alley and may have been breaking curfew.
One of the officers gave chase on foot and the other in a car. During the chase, the boy ran down a gangway, tried to jump a fence and confronted the pursuing officer with a board from a fence, according to Camden and a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
Camden said the boy noted his skills as a lacrosse player and said he "knew how to swing." The officer ordered the boy to drop the board, but he refused and instead moved toward the officer, according to the police statement. The officer fired twice after the boy lunged at him, Camden said.
No officers were injured

Shooting in Chicago March 21 & 22, 2013

13 year shot in Chatham

A 13-year-old boy was wounded in shootings on the South side Thursday.
The teen was shot in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue in the East Chatham neighborhood around 8:25 p.m. He was taken to Comer Children's Hospital with a wound to the leg

21 year old shot in Englewood

At about 8:40 p.m., a 21-year-old man was shot in the leg in the 6700 block of South Bell Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center.
The man was standing on the street when someone in a car fired a single shot while passing by.
Man shot in Albany Park
At about 4:55 p.m., a man in his 20s was shot in the leg and taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital on the North Side. He was shot in the 4900 block of North Ridgeway Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood.

47 year old man shot in South Shore

A 47-year-old wounded in the South Shore neighborhood said he had been shot after someone stuck him up in the 6800 block of South Merrill Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood. He drove himself to the University of Chicago Hospitals for treatment

37 year old man shot in Jefferson Park

A man was wounded when shots were fired from a black Mercedes SUV at a white Cadillac Escalade in the Jefferson Park neighborhood this morning.
The Escalade had pulled up to a home in the 4400 block of North Lavergne Avenue shortly before 5 a.m. when the Mercedes rolled up behind it and someone inside opened fire, riddling the back windows and passenger side with bullets,
The Mercedes sped off and the driver of the Cadillac started chasing it as his brother slumped in the passenger seat, wounded in the back. The SUVs raced up Lavergne to Lawrence Avenue, then on Milwauke Avenue to Foster.
The Mercedes ran a red light at Nagle Avenue and collided with a Toyota van driven by a 29-year-old man. The four people inside the Mercedes, three men and a woman, left the SUV in the intersection and ran off. Two guns were recovered from it.
Meanwhile, the Cadillac stopped at a CVS store and asked someone there to call 911 for the wounded man. While there, the driver saw an ambulance headed to the accident scene and followed it.
The wounded man, 37, was taken in serious condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. The driver of the van was taken to Resurrection Medical Center and treated for pain in his arms.

Person found dead inside Jefferson Park house fire

A woman was found dead inside a burning Jefferson Park home that lacked working smoke detectors early Thursday morning.
Firefighters were called to the house, in the 5000 block of North Mobile Avenue, about 5:50 a.m. They found the 59-year-old woman dead inside.

Woman, 67, killed in Jefferson Park auto accident

A woman who celebrated her 67th birthday on Sunday was killed when she was struck by an SUV while crossing a Jefferson Park neighborhood street.
A 54-year-old man was behind the wheel of a Ford Expedition and traveling west on Higgins Avenue when he struck the woman walking in a crosswalk at 5420 W. Higgins Ave..
The woman, who turned 67 Sunday, was badly hurt in the 7 p.m. wreck and was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge where she was pronounced dead.
The driver, Jeffery Dalak, was not injured but was taken to another hospital to be checked. He was cited with striking a pedestrian in the roadway.

43-year-old man bound, beaten and killed in Jefferson Park

A 43-year-old man was bound and beaten inside his apartment in the 4500 block of Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park about 1:20 a.m. Sunday. Two women at that location were also bound but otherwise uninjured. Police believe two men tied the three but it's not clear why, and police are not classifying the homicide as a home invasion. Police said a third person was involved in the attack but didn’t specify how.
The man lived in the apartment, possibly with one of the two women, who police described as a girlfriend. The second victim’s relation to the first two is unclear. One of the women called police after the assailants left the apartment. The Cook County medical examiner’s office sent an investigator to the scene, and it’s unclear if the man was beat to death or died as a result of being bound

Relatives questioned, DCFS investigating following injury to NW Side baby

A baby boy is hospitalized with extensive injuries, including skull fractures, bleeding on the brain and puncture wounds caused by a toothpick, and his mother and uncle are being questioned today.
The injuries were discovered over the weekend at the family’s Gladstone Park neighborhood home in the 5400 block of North Monitor Avenue, and on Sunday afternoon the 11-month-old boy was rushed to Resurrection Medical Center and then transported to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge -- where his condition had stabilized.
The baby suffered multiple skull fractures, bleeding on the brain, a broken clavicle, a burn on his hand, several puncture wounds on his foot caused by toothpicks, marks on his neck and a liver injury.
The 23-year-old mother and the baby’s 24-year-old uncle, who was the only person caring for the child when he noticed injuries and the baby becoming lethargic, were arrested Tuesday and have not been charged with anything as of Wednesday afternoon.
During interviews the woman said during a bout of frustration, she pulled her baby out of his crib with such force that she caused the fracture of the clavicle, and during another fit, used a toothpick to puncture her son’s left foot.
9-1-1 was called about 5 p.m. Sunday when a witness noticed something wrong with the baby and told the child's mother, who could not rouse the sleeping baby. Another witness told authorities that she also saw the baby during the day Sunday, limp in his walker and unable to hold his head up.
The uncle, who is the woman’s brother-in-law, noticed the child screaming and crying “nonstop” throughout the early morning hours of Saturday and told authorities that he saw a burn on the child’s hand about a week prior. When he asked the mother how that happened, she said the child touched a portable heater in the room. The uncle also told police the child could not stay awake.
Police said the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services initiated a “safety plan’’ and placed the victim’s sibling in the care of another relative.
“DCFS is investigating allegations of abuse and neglect against the mother,’’. Whitelow said they have had no prior contact with the family and said his records indicated two other children in the household were now in the care of relatives.