Afternoon Edition: Aug. 10, 2020

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

Severe storms are expected to push through the Chicago area this afternoon, bringing wind gusts of up to 100 mph. It’ll be hot, with a high near 92 and heat index values as high as 101 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 69 degrees. Tomorrow will clear up and cool down, with sunshine and a high near 84 degrees in the forecast.

Top story

2 shot, more than 100 people arrested, 13 officers injured amid widespread downtown looting

Two people were shot, more than 100 people were arrested and 13 police officers were injured as crowds broke windows and looted stores along Michigan Avenue and on the Near North Side overnight and this morning.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “brazen criminal looting and destruction.“ Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said police would aggressively pursue cases against people involved in the looting; a team of detectives has been assigned to scour security footage of all incidents.

Brown said police will not stand by and watch downtown Chicago become “someplace people fear.” He promised a “heavy police presence” to restore order, and said access to downtown will be restricted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., effective tonight.

Chicago’s top cop said “the seeds for the shameful destruction we saw last night” started in Englewood yesterday afternoon. About 2:30 p.m., officers responded to a report of a man with a gun. He fled as they arrived, Brown said, and fired at officers. They returned fire, striking the man, who is expected to survive. Brown said the 20-year-old had previously faced charges of domestic battery, reckless conduct and child endangerment.

After the shooting, a crowd gathered in the area. As the unrest in Englewood grew, police became aware of “several social media posts” about looting planned downtown, Brown said, and as a result, the department deployed 400 officers to the area.

Brown said the first looting incident was at 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway, but “soon, car caravans were headed into the Loop” to begin looting. Videos posted to social media showed large crowds breaking windows and entering stores along the Magnificent Mile.

Around 4 a.m., Chicago police officers exchanged gunfire with someone near Michigan Avenue and Lake Street. No one was shot, but the Civilian Office of Police Accountability will investigate the shooting. Two other shootings took place amid the looting early this morning, one in the Loop and the other in River North, leaving one man critically wounded in each. Both were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Further south in the Loop, several shops along Lake, Randolph and State streets were also looted, as were a jewelry store and McDonald’s near the Daley Center. Looting spread into the Near North Side, where several businesses were hit.

Ken Londe, owner of Londo Mondo on the Near North Side, said his women’s fashion boutique was among them. He said he lost well over $25,000 worth of merchandise and looters also took his cash drawer.

This is the second time in three months Londo Mondo has been hit by looters. The first happened in May amid the civil unrest over the police killing of George Floyd. Londe has owned this store for more than 30 years and has “never seen anything like what we’re experiencing now.”

“We were just getting back on our feet and things seemed to have been going better,” said Londe, who’s considering moving his store. “We were down three months because of the coronavirus and just before we opened up, we got looted [in May]. … They just keep knocking us down.”

Read our full team report here.

More news you need

1. Chicago Public Schools will budget less than half as much money this year to pay police officers stationed in schools than it did last year, according to a new proposed district budget released today. The budget for the 2020-21 school year will be $15 million, down from $33 million budgeted last year.
2. Four men were killed and at least 36 others were wounded, including three teenagers, in shootings across Chicago over the weekend. Two people, including a security guard, were shot during looting early this morning downtown.
3. McDonald’s says it’s suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging that he covered up relationships with other employees and destroyed evidence. The lawsuit claims Easterbrook approved a special grant of restricted stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to an employee.
4. History was quietly made last month when the Chicago Police Department promoted 28-year veteran Eric Carter to 1st Deputy Superintendent, making the department’s top three brass African American — a milestone achieved for the first time in 185 years. Promotion of 20-year veteran Barbara West in January also made her CPD’s highest-ranking African American woman ever.

A bright one

Chicago restaurateur joins nationwide mission to feed America’s hungry

Before the coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick’s trips to Chicago’s South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago. Now Mallick is a South Side regular — and a popular one: He regularly arrives in Englewood bearing food for the hungry from his Indian restaurant several miles to the north.

“Thank you, sugar, for the meals. They’re so delicious!” one woman recently shouted to Mallick outside a South Side YWCA. He recorded her response on his phone to share it with his staff.

AP

Mallick has personally delivered thousands of meals cooked and packed by his staff, like chickpea curry and tandoori chicken with roasted cottage cheese, sweet corn, peas and rice. Volunteers from neighborhood organizations then take them to children, retirees and the multitudes who’ve been laid off or fallen sick during the pandemic.

His restaurant, ROOH Chicago, is one of more than 2,400 eateries, from New York City to Oakland, California, working with the non-profit World Central Kitchen to provide meals to the hungry. Traditionally, the organization has set up kitchens to feed people affected by natural disasters, but now it’s focused on COVID-19 and is paying restaurants $10 for every meal they provide to those in need.

“We all need to help each other,” Mallick says. “That’s the best way to get through a crisis.”

Read the full story here.

From the press box

The Blackhawks open their next playoff series tomorrow night against the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL’s Edmonton bubble. Here’s how to watch.

The Big Ten will apparently be the first Power Five football conference to give up on playing the 2020 season. The Detroit Free Press reported the universities’ presidents voted to call off the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Want more? Here’s the full rundown of sports this week, courtesy of Steve Greenberg.

Your daily question ☕

Were you affected by any of the looting that happened overnight or this morning? We want to hear your story.

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Friday, we asked you to tell us about the funniest thing your pet has done recently. Here’s what some of you said…

“My kitten, who is 3 ½ months, just found out he has a tail and chases it around and around and when he stops he is so dizzy he walks like he’s drunk.” — Cruz Zamarripa

“Gianni, our new puppy, woke me up in the middle of the night on a workday to go play outside. He was running like a maniac in circles at 3:00 a.m.” — Erika Hoffman

“My coworkers heard my cat snoring over my Zoom call.” — Shirlee Berman

“Our parrot walked up a flight of stairs and stood next to the bed waiting for my husband to wake up from an afternoon nap.” — Darlene Ruh

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