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CHICAGO — An 18-time convicted felon on probation for being part of the “Puffy Coat Bandit” theft ring was arrested Sunday after he committed the exact same crime that he’s on probation for, according to prosecutors: stealing a man’s credit cards and using them almost immediately to buy things at Target. During an initial appearance this week, Judge Susana Ortiz released Jerome Sharp, 30, with a nighttime curfew. He was not detained for violating probation. One year ago, the “Puffy Coat Bandits” were the talk of the town as they slithered through restaurants in their bulky winter coats, stealing phones,...

CHICAGO — Last winter, they prowled restaurants and bars, stealing customers’ phones, wallets, and purses while wearing black puffy winter coats that quickly earned them a headline-friendly nickname: the “Puffy Coat Bandits.” Lincoln Park and the Near North Side businesses were especially hard hit. Chicago police made two arrests, including 15-time convicted felon Jerome Sharp, dubbed a “ringleader” of the operation by downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd). Sharp has now pleaded guilty to three felonies, two related to the “Puffy Coat Bandit” allegations, making him an 18-time convicted felon. He was sentenced to—brace yourself—probation in all three cases. ... Last...

A 16-time convicted felon has received probation after being charged with stealing purses from a 74-year-old cancer patient and a nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital as the COVID pandemic swept into the city last year. Prosecutors initially charged Darryl Berry, 59, with multiple counts of theft and identity theft for the crimes that allegedly took place in April and June 2020. Berry was arrested at Northwestern after hospital security recognized him on the premises in August last year. In the first theft, while the hospital had limited staffing and few visitors due to the COVID pandemic, Berry entered the hospital...

A California man — a convicted felon out on probation — is facing multiple murder charges after he allegedly went on a shooting rampage that took the lives of his current and former girlfriends in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to authorities. Officers say Louis Peter Hernandez, 41, entered a home Nov. 25 in Fontana, and allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend along with one other person inside the home. Hernandez then allegedly traveled to Riverside County and shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, according to a release from the San Bernadino County District Attorney. Authorities added there's also an...

A Chicago woman has been left brain dead after she was viciously beaten by an eight-time felon, police said. The woman, 61, who has not been identified, was riding the CTA Red Line on January 4 when she was targeted by two men - one of whom was allegedly convicted criminal Mijawon Johnson, 36. As they attempted to steal her purse, Johnson pinned the woman to a seat and repeatedly punched and stomped her head and stomach, and jumped on her 'with all of his weight', prosecutors said. Johnson was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the...

Democrats occupy D.C. while their own people die every day. After shooting deaths shot up 75% in Chicago, Governor Pritzker announced that he was dispatching 500 more National Guard troops to fight “the dark forces of racism” in D.C. Washington D.C. may be suffering from “the dark forces of racism” since it’s currently in the hands of the party of racism, slavery, and segregation, but those National Guard troops would do a lot more good in Chicago where 81%, the majority of shooting victims, are black. Around 150 people have been shot since Pritzker sent the troops to D.C. instead...

A man killed three people and wounded four others in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago's South Side and ended with his death in a shootout with police in a parking lot just north of the city.Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the attacks, which began Saturday afternoon with the killing of a 30-year-old University of Chicago student who was shot in the head while sitting in his car in a parking garage in the Hyde Park neighborhood, ...The shooter, 32-year-old Jason Nightengale, then “just randomly” walked into an apartment building a...

Nearly 40 people were shot, six fatally, across the weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. Breitbart News reported 30 people were shot Friday evening into Sunday morning alone in Chicago, and two of those victims succumbed to their wounds. By Monday morning NBC 5 reported “at least 36” had been shot and wounded and ABC 7 reported the number of shooting victims at 39.

Over 35 people were shot, nine fatally, Friday into Sunday morning in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.

US Attorney General William Barr said Operation Legend has resulted in hundreds of arrests in Chicago as he gave an update on the federal crime-fighting initiative Wednesday morning. Since the program launched in July, Attorney General Barr said more than 500 people have been arrested and 124 people have been charged with federal crimes. video - 10 min Operation Legend has deployed 1,000 federal agents to nine cities, including 400 to Chicago. In the first five weeks of Operation Legend in Chicago, Barr said murders dropped by 50 percent over the previous five weeks. "The bottom line is Operation Legend...

On Wednesday, Attorney General Bill Barr revealed that the murder rate in Chicago had plummeted "roughly in half" since the start of Operation Legend, a program that deploys federal agents to violent cities to quell violence. During a press conference in Chicago, Barr said that Operation Legend has resulted in 500 arrests as well as 124 individual federal crime charges. “Throughout the country, more than 2500 people have been arrested and more than 600 are facing federal charges as part of the operation, an ongoing government effort to combat surging crime in parts of the country,” Fox News reports. Daily...

How do we drive down violent crime? At one point in the not-so-distant past, America figured out the answer — lock up violent criminals rather than releasing them. Chicago may have reinvented this wheel over the past month, as local law enforcement announced earlier today. Homicides dropped almost by half in August and shootings declined by double digits: Homicides and shootings reported last month in Chicago were down from a month ago, according to data collected by Chicago police.The 63 murders reported in August was a 45% decrease from July, while the number of shootings decreased by 15%, Chicago...

At least 16 people were shot, two fatally, Friday through Saturday afternoon in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. NBC 5 reports the gun violence began Friday at 8:50 p.m., with a non-fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man, who was shot in the hand and back. A four-year-old boy was also among those injured Friday. He was standing outside with an 18-year-old woman in the 8600 block of South Honore “when an unknown male inside a passing Dodge Challenger opened fire” just before 11:30 p.m. The boy was shot in the leg and the woman was shot in the back. Both...

Six people were shot, including one who died at the scene, as they ate outside a restaurant in Chicago, according to the city Fire Department.

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including many involving charges of murder and other serious crimes - in her first three years on the job, a new report shows. Foxx gained notoriety last year when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019. The Chicago Tribune on Monday published an analysis of Foxx's overall record on dropping charges, revealing that she has done so at a rate that's 35 percent higher than her predecessor. In the first three...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed looters and rioters who descended upon the downtown area early Monday morning, calling the overnight events “an assault on our city” and telling criminals, “We are coming for you.” Police said more than 100 people were arrested and at least 13 officers were hurt over the course of the events. “We are waking up in shock this morning,” Lightfoot said. “These individuals engaged in what can only be described as brazen and extensive criminal looting and destruction. And to be clear, this had nothing to do with legitimate, protected First Amendment expression.”

Thirty-four people were shot, nine fatally, over the weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. On August 2, 2020, Breitbart News reported 21 people had been shot, six fatally, Friday through Saturday afternoon alone. On Monday morning the Chicago Sun-Times reported the weekend concluded with at least 34 shot, nine fatally. NBC5 reported the fatal shootings began with someone opening fire shortly after 6 p.m. Friday on a nine-year-old boy who was playing in a parking lot. The boy was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the hospital.

Late Sunday night NBC 5 reported at least 49 people had been shot, two fatally. By Monday morning the Chicago Sun-Times reported nearly 60 shot with three fatalities. NBC 5 noted that weekend shootings began Friday with a non-fatal incident just after 5 pm, when two individuals were shot while standing in a gas station parking lot “in the 800 block of West 59th Street.” Less than 30 minutes later a 19-year-old was shot and left in serious condition while sitting on a porch on West Cullerton. The violence continued from there. On Tuesday, Mayor Lightfoot acknowledged President Trump would...

At least 106 people were shot in Chicago, 13 of them fatally, from midafternoon Friday through early Monday, according to city officials and Tribune data. It is the most people shot in one weekend since at least 2012 but not the deadliest this year, after more than 20 were killed over the last weekend in May, according to data compiled by the Tribune. Twelve of those shot this past weekend were younger than 18 years old. Five of those children died.

Chicago suffers deadliest day in 60 years with 18 murders in 24 hours. Where is #BlackLivesMatter