'Bridge-Jumping Game' , Young Girl Jumps To Her Death

Police believe an 11-year-old Bolingbrook, Ill. girl who drowned in a retention pond behind her elementary school Tuesday jumped off a bridge after being dared by classmates.

Witnesses remember hearing Jordan Oliver tell her friends she couldn't swimbefore jumping off the bridge behind Pioneer Elementary School, where Oliver was in fifth grade, according to WGN.

According to Bolingbrook police, Oliver and a group of six other boys and girls said they were going "bridge jumping" Tuesday and climbed over the side rails of the bridge at a pond at Indian Chase Meadows, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Oliver jumped twice: the first time she was able to swim to shore, but the second time witnesses saw her resurface, then sink into the 12-foot-deep water.

Police and fire crews arrived at the pond at about 5:36 p.m. Tuesday, and found the girl about an hour later, Bolingbrook police Lt. Mike Rompa told the Daily Herald. She was taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Grief counselors were on hand at the 800-student elementary school Wednesday morning, where school officials say they are trying to make the environment as normal as possible, ABC Chicago reports. Administrators described Oliver as a popular student who loved the school and got along with classmates.

“She was an angel,” Jackie Malonga, Oliver's next door neighbor, told the Chicago Tribune. “Everyone in the neighborhood loved her. We are all in a state of shock right now.”

 Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/jordan-oliver-drowns-in-r_n_1522391.html

Chicago Become The Place Where A Black Teen Dies Daily

It's been another violent weekend in Chicago, with at least 15 people wounded by gunfire and 2 killed since Friday afternoon.

On Saturday night, a 12-year-old girl was standing on a sidewalk in the 500 block of North Springfield Avenue when she was shot in her left foot, the Chicago Tribunereports. Though the circumstances of the shooting were unclear, police told the paper that the child's family did not cooperate with police. She was hospitalized in good condition.

Donnel Rankin, a 16-year-old from suburban Sauk Village, was not so lucky. Rankin was found in the 12100 block of South Green Street Friday night with a gunshot wound to his head, the Tribune reports. He was dead on the scene. No one was in custody for the slaying as of Saturday night, and police told the Chicago Sun-Times it was likely gang-related.

Also on Friday night, a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man were standing outside a party in the 7000 block of South Clyde Avenue when more than one assailant approached on foot and opened fire, NBC Chicago reports. The 17-year-old was critically wounded, and the 21-year-old was in "stable" condition. No one was in custody, but police told the station the shooters fled in a blue van.

As CBS Chicago reports, the shootings continued through Saturday and into early Sunday morning, when 33-year-old Devon Paramore was gunned down in the 8600 block of West 87th Street. Paramore was taken to John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County, where he was pronounced dead.

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/06/chicago-weekend-shootings_n_1489919.html

Meet The Next Zimmerman. Sons Of Those In Control of Justice.

To become a DuPage County sheriff’s deputy, applicants must be at least 21 and have two or more years of college credit.

But those qualifications apparently don’t matter, provided you’re a son of the western suburbs’ top law enforcement official.

A Better Government Association/CBS2 investigation found that Patrick Zaruba, the teenage son of DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba, was allowed to go on numerous patrols with on-duty sheriff’s officers in recent years, dress like a cop, and participate in car and foot chases and, possibly, arrests.

Not only was the sheriff aware of his son’s activities, the sheriff was present on occasion, including an instance where the Zarubas stood side by side as the sheriff tried to enter a home to look for a suspect, a source told the BGA. Patrick Zaruba was 18 at the time, and a senior at Wheaton Warrenville South High School.

Many police agencies have "ride-along" programs – in which members of the media, aspiring cops and other interested parties can tag along with on-duty officers to get a feel for real-life law enforcement.

But experts consulted by the BGA were stunned that the sheriff allowed a youthful observer to have a hand in actual police work. Not only does that create huge insurance and departmental liability concerns – what if the ride-along participant slipped and broke a bone, or injured a suspect? – it has the potential to put officers in jeopardy and ultimately poison a prosecution, they said. 

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/patrick-zaruba-teen-son-o_n_1458679.html?ref=topbar

15-Year-Old Girl Attacked In School Stairway.

Police were called to Evanston Township High School after a school officer found a 14-year-old male student allegedly forcing a 15-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him in the school's stairwell during class hours, NBC Chicago reports.

After the boy was taken into custody, the following statement was posted to the school's web site.

"... It was learned through an investigation conducted by Evanston Police Juvenile Bureau detectives and in cooperation with Evanston Township High School staff that the 14 year old male student had physically forced the 15 year old female to perform a sex act against her will. The 14 year old male student was taken into custody and subsequently charged with one count of criminal sexual assault a class 1 felony. The male was remanded to the custody of the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center."

Evanston Patch reports the names of the boy and the female victim are not being released due to their ages.

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/chicago-boy-forced-sex-act-school-stairwell_n_1434788.html?ir=Chicago&ref=topbar

Wrong Order Gets Waitress Attacked.

A Missouri woman is facing felony charges for attacking a waitress at a restaurant in southwest Illinois after the wrong food order was delivered to her table.

Cell phone videos caught the brutal attack on a female server at Red Lobster in Fairview Heights, Ill. Dec. 30.

Police say the food orders for a table of four women were handed off between waitstaff, resulting in a mix-up, the Associated Press reports. When the wrong meals were delivered, one woman threw a drink in the waitress' face before all four women began punching and pushing the server, who suffered cuts to her nose and forehead and a swollen eye.

"Look at the waitress! She's going to kick that [expletive]! She threw a drink in her face and they came and attacked her," a customer can be heard saying on the video of the incident.

After an appeal to the public to help identify the women involved, police have arrested and charged Ania D. Wilkes, 20, of Ferguson, Mo. with mob action and aggravated battery, both felonies, according to KSDK News. Police say tips helped them identify three of the four suspected assailants, and more charges are expected to be filed soon.

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/waitress-attacked-at-red-_n_1408327.html?ref=mostpopular

One Of These Young Men Could Have Been Trayvon Or Trayvon Could Have Been One Of Them.

For the third year running, an all-male charter school with students from Chicago's roughest neighborhoods is sending its entire senior class to college.

Urban Prep Academy reports that all 85 seniors graduating from the all-male preparatory school have been accepted to four-year colleges or universities, the third consecutive year an entire senior class has gotten acceptance letters along with their diplomas.

This year's class also has some standout stars, like Vernon Cheeks, 17, who was accepted to 14 schools, according to CBS Chicago.

"It taught me how to be resilient. It also taught me how to be accountable for my own actions," he told the station of his experience in the standout high school program.

Urban Prep's success is unusual in its West Side neighborhood, which sees disproportionately high rates of violent crime so severe that parents requested heightened protection for academy students earlier this year, amid concerns that gang territories were advancing on the school.






Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/urban-prep-graduates-all-_n_1391121.html?ref=chicago

Black Children Grow Up And Die In American War Zones

A 6-year-old girl was fatally shot Saturday afternoon -- one of five individuals wounded within one hour in separate shootings across the city and one of at least seven killed by gun violence over the weekend as of Sunday morning -- in Chicago.

Aliyah Shell was playing on her front porch with her parents around 3:40 p.m. in the 3100 block of South Springfield Avenue in the city's Little Village neighborhood when a pickup truck pulled up to the house and a man inside the vehicle began shooting at the house, NBC Chicago reports.

The girl was struck in the abdomen multiple times and was rushed in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 5:24 p.m., according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

A neighbor told the Chicago Tribune that she would remember Aliyah as a "really sweet" girl.
"Every time she's come over, she'd eat the bananas," the girl recalled to the Tribune. "She was a good girl. It wasn't her fault."

Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/aliyah-shell-6-year-old-a_n_1357069.html?ref=chicago

Judge orders Jury to wear Signs.

An Indiana man who skipped out on jury selection has been ordered by a judge to stand in front of the Lake County Courthouse with a sign that says "I failed to appear for jury duty.;"

Judge Thomas Stefaniak, Jr. told the 22-year-old prospective juror, whose name has not been released but who is known to be unemployed, that leaving the courthouse after a lunch break before the jury had been selected was inexcusable, especially because the man has "got nothing else to do," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/jury-duty-no-show-ordered_n_1228481.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003