Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Bodycam video shows details of ICE’s fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González — and calls into question the extent of a federal agent’s injuries.
🗞️ Plus: A push to lift Chicago’s ban on dogs in restaurants, how to test your water for lead and more news you need to know.
🧩 After you’re caught up: We’ve got a new Chicago-style crossword for you to try. This week’s theme: Theaters.
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⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌧️
Mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms and a high near 79.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
ICE officer said his injuries were ‘nothing major’ after deadly shooting near Chicago, video shows
Reporting by Tom Schuba and Nader Issa
ICE explanation: As two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tried to revive a Mexican immigrant who was dying from gunshot wounds, one sought to explain the shooting. “He tried to run us over,” the ICE officer said in body camera footage captured by a Franklin Park cop arriving at the northwest suburban shooting scene Sept. 12.
What footage shows: One of the videos obtained by the Sun-Times shows the blue jeans of the other federal agent were left bloodied and torn, and he told local police that he was “dragged a little bit.”
Life lost: A short time later, Silverio Villegas González’s body was moved from the street into an ambulance by a group of firefighters and paramedics. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, records show.
‘Nothing major’: Speaking over a radio, the federal agent who told police that Villegas González tried to use his car as a weapon said his partner had suffered “a left knee injury and some lacerations to his hands.” The injured agent said: “Nothing major.”
DHS narrative: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported the agent “sustained multiple injuries” and was “seriously injured” when he was “dragged a significant distance” by Villegas González’s car as he fled a traffic stop. DHS officials said the agent had opened fire, fearing for his life.
Bottom line: The body camera videos raise new questions about the narrative put forth by DHS, which is leading an ongoing deportation campaign in the Chicago area that has stoked fears and sparked protests. Meanwhile, the feds have largely been silent on the incident.
READ MORE
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Appeals court challenges Trump’s civil rights boss as it weighs Illinois assault weapons ban
Reporting by Jon Seidel
Court challenge: The U.S. Department of Justice’s top civil rights official on Monday rejected a federal appeals court’s past decision to uphold Illinois’ assault weapons ban, arguing in court that the AR-15 and similar guns are “clearly” protected by the Second Amendment.
Dhillon questioned: But Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon found herself being questioned by U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook, who’d joined the 2023 decision that’s helped keep the law in place. He asked Dhillon whether a lower court judge’s fact-finding affected her view.
Key context: Dhillon took the unusual step of traveling to Chicago to briefly participate in arguments before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Her portion of the 90-minute hearing lasted about five minutes.
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Council member proposes lifting ban on dogs in restaurants
Reporting by Fran Spielman
Going to the dogs: Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) wants to throw a financial bone to restaurants fighting for survival by allowing them to serve patrons who bring in their dogs, without fear of fines.
Ruff draft: Knudsen said he drafted the ordinance at the behest of a Clark Street cafe owner whose eat-in French bakery was tied up for hours by “back-to-back” city inspections triggered by a patron complaint about the presence of dogs in the eatery.
Key context: Right now, Chicago restaurants are prohibited from serving patrons accompanied by dogs — either indoors or outdoors — unless the animal is a service dog. The ban is widely ignored and sporadically enforced, usually in response to a complaint.
READ MORE
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Theaters.
Here’s your clue:
13A: Chicago theater that premiered “August: Osage County”
PLAY NOW
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
Protests continue: Demonstrators were hit by pepper balls and rubber bullets Monday during protests at ICE’s Broadview facility.
Monthslong tenure: First Deputy Supt. Yolanda Talley, the second-ranking Chicago police official, is retiring after just seven months on the job.
Residence discrepancy: Leonard Dixon, head of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, for years has been getting property tax breaks in Michigan that are allowed only for primary residences — even though he’s required to live in Cook County, Injustice Watch reports.
Remembering Raymond Lee: After immigrating to Chicago from China at 15 years old, Mr. Lee reshaped Chicago’s Chinatown, helping to create Ping Tom Park, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago and a thriving business run by his son. He died Aug. 31 at age 90.
‘Portlandia’ live: Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are taking their Emmy-nominated satire series on the road, with a Chicago stop scheduled Thursday and Friday at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater.
Kimmel’s show returns Tuesday: ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show in the wake of criticism over his comments about the assassination of far right activist Charlie Kirk, network officials said.
2.5 stars for ‘Ashland Avenue’: Set in a TV shop and starring Jenna Fischer, this production tunes into bygone Chicago but at times feels static, writes Catey Sullivan in a review for the Sun-Times.
LEAD ALERT 💧
Millions in loans to replace lead pipes that pump water into homes remain unspent
Reporting by Keerti Gopal and Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco
Unused funds: Millions of dollars in federal and city loans dedicated to replacing lead pipes that pump water into people’s homes remain unused, a city official said Monday, at the same time officials are struggling to keep up with state and federal deadlines to warn people of the risks.
Officials questioned: At a City Council committee meeting, alderpersons questioned officials from the departments of water management and finance over slow lead pipe replacements and a monthslong delay in warning nearly a million Chicagoans about the risks of toxic lead pipes.
Key context: Chicago has more than 412,000 confirmed and suspected lead service lines — the most of any city in the country — but replacements are lagging. Chicago doesn’t anticipate replacing all its pipes until 2076, some 30 years after a federal deadline.
More headlines:
Lead pipe problem the worst in Chicago’s majority Black and Latino neighborhoods
How we mapped Chicago’s lead service lines and what we learned
How to check if your home has a lead pipe
READ MORE
WATCH: HOW TO TEST YOUR WATER FOR LEAD ▶️
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏀🏈⚾
Offseason questions: Three of the Sky’s biggest names — Angel Reese, Courtney Vandersloot and Ariel Atkins — will not be conducting voluntary exit interviews.
Texas 2-step: Bears QB Caleb Williams can keep putting up big games if he consistently masters nuances, writes Jason Lieser.
Potential in playoffs: With Cade Horton drawing Jake Arrieta comparisons, could the Cubs ride a hot hand for the wild-card series?
Year 1 in review: Manager Will Venable is still embracing the White Sox “challenge” as club culture locks into place.
High school boys basketball: The top 10 seniors from Illinois for the upcoming season.
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Mural celebrates education — across from artist’s old rival school
Reporting by Genevieve Bookwalter
Delisha McKinney long sought to paint more murals in her neighborhood, East Garfield Park. So when the opportunity came, she jumped at it — even if it was across the street from her old rival high school.
“I’ve been wanting to work more in that space where I’m from. It was a to-do for me, a bucket list. I had to put something in my neighborhood,” she says.
Her recurring themes of celebrating childhood and education made her mural the right fit for a 16-by-16-foot spot on a new apartment complex across the street from John Marshall Metropolitan High School. McKinney attended Austin High School, which closed in 2007 and was Marshall’s rival.
The mural is on a south-facing wall of Fifth City Commons, which consists of 43 affordable apartments at 3155 W. Fifth Ave. on the corner of South Kedzie Avenue.
“The piece is about children finding fun in education, and there’s no ceiling,” McKinney told the Sun-Times. The artwork focuses on science, math and imagination.
READ MORE
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
As we reported above, Chicago restaurants are prohibited from serving patrons accompanied by dogs unless that animal is a service dog. Ald. Timmy Knudsen’s proposed ordinance would change that. So we want to know:
Do you think nonservice dogs should be permitted in Chicago restaurants, indoors and outdoors? Tell us why or why not.
Email us (please include your first and last name). Your answers could be included in Wednesday’s morning newsletter.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia