Author: Don Babwin

CHICAGO • A pregnant woman who had gone to a Chicago home in response to a Facebook offer of free baby clothes was strangled and her baby cut from her womb, police and family members said. The newborn was in grave condition and not expected to survive, and three people were taken into custody, including…

CHICAGO • “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett gave detailed instructions to two brothers who helped him stage a racist, anti-gay attack on himself, including giving them specific slurs to yell, telling them to shout “MAGA country” and pointing out a surveillance camera that he thought would record the beating, a prosecutor said Thursday. Police said Smollett…

AURORA, Ill. • An initial background check failed to detect a felony conviction that should have barred the man who killed five co-workers and wounded six others at a suburban Chicago manufacturing plant from buying the gun. Months later, a second background check of Gary Martin found his 1995 aggravated assault conviction in Mississippi involving…

CHICAGO • Prosecutors on Monday asked Illinois’ highest court to review the less than seven year prison sentence for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald — an unusual move in what was already a rare case. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the special prosecutor who won a murder…

CHICAGO — An argument outside a Chicago hospital turned deadly when a man pulled out a gun and killed an emergency room doctor whom he knew, then ran into the hospital and fatally shot a pharmacy resident and a police officer, authorities said. The attacker also died Monday but it was not clear if he…