A Hammond man faces up to 10 years in an East Chicago shooting.
Larcell Lockhart, 28, of Hammond, pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. His sentencing hearing is May 8.
Officers responded around 10 a.m. April 1, 2018, to the 3400 block of Guthrie Street for a report of 15 to 20 shots fired, according to a probable cause affidavit.
A woman was sitting in a car with her boyfriend outside her apartment complex on Guthrie Street when they “heard a loud bang” and saw the “front passenger side window shatter,” followed by gunfire, the affidavit stated.
The woman said she had seen a man walk from one side of a building to another which she said she found “strange, because nobody lived on the side of the building where the man came from,” according to the affidavit.
The woman was shot in her upper right back and was taken to St. Catherine Hospital, court records state. She had spinal and rib fractures, causing “difficulty with her lower right extremities,” the affidavit stated.
At the scene, officers found 32 spent shell casings from two different caliber weapons, according to the affidavit.
Co-defendant Mark Harrison pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and three years in Lake County Community Corrections in January.
Charges against a third man, Marzell Walden, were dismissed in 2018.
Mistrial in rape case
A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a Gary man’s rape trial for assaulting a 16-year-old runaway girl, court records show.
Kenneth Y. Jones, 46, is charged with rape, a Level 3 felony, and criminal confinement, a Level 6 felony. He pleaded not guilty.
A new hearing is March 14.
Gary detectives responded June 17, 2024, to the home on the 1400 block of Delaware after police got a tip that a girl was held there.
At the house, another girl, “Nikki,” tried to undress her in an upstairs bedroom. The second man tried to have sex with her but she refused. Both Jones and the second man forced her to perform a sex act.
Jones blew smoke from a “glass pipe” in her face, making her dizzy, the affidavit states. She later guessed it was crack cocaine. The second man told her he had sex with young girls, and told her not to “say anything about it” or he would go to jail.
In a police interview, Jones denied touching the girl or blowing smoke in her face but admitted the girl was being held in the home.
Co-defendant Tommie Johnson’s next hearing is April 9.
Plea offer in slaying
Prosecutors said Thursday in court they are offering a 40-year voluntary manslaughter plea deal to a man charged with gunning down a victim with developmental disabilities.
David Carlos Velazquez, 21, is charged with the May 25, 202,1 murder of Aseal Wilson.
The deadline is March 20 if he wants to accept the deal. At a trial, he faces up to 85 years if found guilty.
Wilson was riding his bike south on Indianapolis Boulevard in Hammond near State Line Road sometime after 7:30 p.m. when a man in the back seat of an aquamarine Honda Odyssey opened fire on him, according to an affidavit.
Co-defendant Terrell Bradley is awaiting sentencing. Another co-defendant, Javier Mendez, has a court date on April 15.
Burhan Academy opened its doors to the Elgin community Wednesday to show off the new school and share its mission.
“It’s my absolute pleasure and privilege to welcome you to Burhan Academy,” founder and president Mufti Yasir Nadeem said. “Today marks an important occasion as we come together not only as neighbors but as partners in a shared mission in the pursuit of knowledge, excellence and community building.”
An Islamic group purchased the former Elgin Academy at 350 Park St. last year and opened the new K-12 school in September. Elgin Academy closed in 2024 after a 185-year legacy.
Burhan Academy Administrator Kiran Ansari said the school enrolled 91 students within its first four months of opening. Next year they’ll have nearly 245, she said.
While it is offering just preschool to third-grade classes right now, it will be adding grades each year, Ansari said.
Burhan Academy is a faith-based school guided by the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. A foundation of Islam is the transformative power of education, Nadeem said.
“We believe education is not just about acquiring facts but about nurturing individuals with integrity, purpose and a sense of service to others,” he said. (Muhammad’s) legacy of wisdom and compassion is the guiding light behind our mission.”
Syed Shah’s 6-year-old daughter, Kashas, started first grade in November. She transferred from Fox Meadow Elementary School in South Elgin.
“We absolutely love Fox Meadow,” Shah said. But the academy offered “other things we wanted for our kid. This just aligned a little more with our needs. In addition to academics, we wanted to expose our kid to theology.”
Safiur Rahman Saleem, left, and Ahmad Nadeem look out the window of Burhan Academy during an open house Wednesday night at the 350 Park St. school in Elgin. (Gloria Casas/The Courier-News)
One big benefit is the focus on their religious faith, which has traditions — like Ramadan — that are hard for children to explain to those who don’t practice them, Shah said. It was something he experienced when he went to public schools in Milwaukee, especially after 9/11, he said.
“I felt at times there were situations where I wished my teachers were a little more educated on different cultures and religions,” Shah said.
The academy is Islamic, but “we open our arms to all,” Nadeem said. “We are not just a school for one community. We are a school for all who seek knowledge, character and a sense of belonging.
“We believe that through understanding and dialogue we become stronger together,” he said. “Our doors will always remain open to those who share our passion for education and personal growth.”
Nadeem added that the academy is grateful for the support it’s received from neighbors and city leaders. “Elgin has always been a city that values education and progress. We are honored to contribute to that tradition,” he said.
Burhan Academy officials also honored Elgin Academy’s history and tradition, he said.
“We stand on the shoulders of a great legacy. For more than 180 years, Elgin Academy was a beacon in the city, shaping minds, strengthening values and serving as a pillar of the community,” Nadeem said. “Although its chapter has come to a close, its thread of academic vigor and character development lives on in Burhan Academy.”
The campus has been a blessing for Burhan Academy, he said. The $3.7 million sale included the buildings, equipment, desks, chairs and furnishings, meaning Burhan just had to move in, he said.
Shah said he is happy to see the school honoring Elgin Academy.
“I love the fact this administration has kept some of the Elgin Academy pictures and accolades,” he said. “I look at the campus, and it’s a beautiful place. I would hate for someone to think that legacy is being replaced. That legacy is being celebrated.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
The votes are in — the people of Illinois would like to keep the state flag as it is.
The public had nearly a month to vote on 10 proposed state flag designs, along with two former state flags and the existing flag, as part of the Illinois Flag Commission’s contest that could have led to a new flag to represent the Land of Lincoln.
While the state’s flag did not receive a majority of the vote, it won with more than 165,000 votes, with the second-place finisher collecting less than 33,000.
“Some may call it an SOB — a seal on a bedsheet — and the vexillogical community may hate it, but people overwhelmingly prefer our current state flag,” Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said in a news release announcing the contest results.
Ted Kaye, a vexillologist, or person who studies flags, has disparaged Illinois’ flag and told the Tribune earlier this year that the design contest should be seen as suspect because the votes of residents who wanted a change were split among more than 10 options.
The possibility of a new flag is not completely closed. The commission will submit a report to the Illinois General Assembly by April 1, and Tim Butler, a commission member and former Republican state representative, said it will most likely contain information on the other finalists. The final decision is up to the legislators.
“It is absolutely up to the lawmakers,” Butler said. “State law would need to be changed, so that’s them.”
Sen. Doris Turner, a Springfield Democrat who sponsored the 2023 bill leading to the design contest, said in a January interview that the flag competition process did not cost the state any money, noting that the commission was made up of volunteers who selected the design finalists, which were disclosed in December, from nearly 5,000 submissions.
Butler expects the commission to meet again before the April 1 deadline, as the Secretary of State’s office has inquired about the commission’s availability in March.
The measure would legalize medical aid in dying, often referred to as physician-assisted suicide or medically-assisted death, allowing mentally competent, terminally ill adults the right to access life-ending prescription medication.
Luis Santiago, center right, with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, speaks to community members about an accelerated moving event for residents of Gompers Park’s homeless encampment on March 5, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)
City officials began the painstaking process Wednesday of finding apartments for about 30 people living at a contentious Gompers Park homeless encampment. For Calixto Rodriguez, a resident who clutched a postcard listing available resources, it was a welcome plan. Read more here.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks with reporters after President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025. (Ben Curtis/AP)
This is the second one-month postponement Trump has announced since first unveiling the import taxes in early February. The reprieve would apply to goods that are compliant with the trade agreement Trump negotiated with Canada and Mexico in his first term. Read more here.
Dolphins tight end Durham Smythe is tackled by Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds during a wild-card game on Jan. 15, 2023, in Orchard Park, NY. (Matt Durisko/AP)
The Bears have 27 players with expiring contracts, most notably wide receiver Keenan Allen, offensive linemen Teven Jenkins, Matt Pryor and Coleman Shelton, long snapper Patrick Scales and running back/special teams ace Travis Homer. The Tribune is tracking and analyzing the latest developments in free agency. Read more here.
This summer’s schedule of music festivals and city events was announced today, including the return of Blues Fest, Jazz Fest and other summer favorites, including the Chicago Air and Water Show and Taste of Chicago. Read more here.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson makes his opening statement alongside New York City Eric Adams, far left, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 5, 2025, in Washington. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform lasted nearly six hours and grew increasingly confrontational. Republicans accused the Democratic leaders of New York, Chicago, Denver and Boston of sheltering dangerous criminals, while several of the mayors pointed to inaction in Washington. Read more here.
WASHINGTON — Ukraine was given “fair warning” by the White House before President Donald Trump this week ordered a pause on U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, a senior administration official said Thursday.
The Republican administration announced the pauses this week after Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Oval Office meeting devolved into a shouting match, with the U.S. president and Vice President JD Vance excoriating the Ukrainian leader for being insufficiently grateful for the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. assistance sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded three years ago.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said the pause is already having an impact on Kyiv, adding that the Ukrainians “brought it on themselves.”
“The best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,” Kellogg said at an event Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You got their attention.”
Kellogg said it was made clear to the Ukrainians before last week’s Oval Office meeting that the talks would focus on signing a critical minerals deal. The agreement, which the two sides still have not signed, would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth deposits and could be of value to U.S. aerospace, electric vehicle and medical manufacturing.
Trump administration officials have said the economic pact would bind the U.S. and Ukraine closer together and would give Russian President Vladimir Putin pause before considering malign action against Ukraine in the future. Zelenskyy had been pressing the White House for explicit security guarantees, to no avail.
Kellogg said last week’s talks went sideways because Zelenskyy pressed Trump — who is trying to play the role of intermediary to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia — to side with Kyiv.
Zelenskyy later called the heated words “regrettable” and said he’s ready to sign an agreement. He told European leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday he was grateful for their support and said the teams from the U.S. and Ukraine had resumed their work and hoped to have ”a meaningful meeting” next week.
“Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war, and we have always said that the only reason why the war continues is because of Russia,” Zelenskyy said in his speech, which was published on the Ukrainian president’s website.
Another Trump special envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed that senior administration officials are arranging to hold talks next week with senior Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff noted that Zelenskyy has been apologetic in recent days about the White House blowup and expressed gratitude. He was circumspect about whether the minerals deal would be signed during the expected meeting in Saudi Arabia. “We’ll see if he follows through,” Witkoff said.
But Kellogg said he couldn’t guarantee a resumption of weapons deliveries even if Zelenskyy accepts the deal.
“That’s up to the president,” Kellogg said. He added, “You don’t negotiate peace discussions in public. You don’t try to challenge the president of the United States in the Oval Office.”
Trump said in a speech before Congress on Tuesday that Zelenskyy had written to him to say he appreciates U.S. support for his country in its war with Russia. Trump said Zelenskyy told him that Ukraine is ready to negotiate a peace deal with Russia as soon as possible and would accept the minerals agreement with the U.S. to facilitate that.
Although Trump said he “appreciated” getting the letter, he did not say if it would affect his policy toward Ukraine.
The suspension of U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine will damage Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against ongoing Russian attacks against military and civilian targets, according to an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War. The research group said suspension of all U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine would also allow Russian forces to intensify their drone and missile strikes against the Ukrainian rear, affecting millions of Ukrainian civilians and the growth of Ukraine’s defense industrial base.
