Man faces charge after Chicago road rage shooting wounds boy

  • This April 2021 booking photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Jushawn Brown. Police say Brown has been charged with unlawful use of a firearm by a felon in connection with a shooting Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that wounded a 21-month-old boy who was riding in a car with him on Chicago’s famed Lake Shore Drive. (Chicago Police Department via AP)
  • A Chicago police officer stands on the scene of a shooting where a 2-year-old boy was shot in the head while he was traveling inside a car near Grant Park, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP)
  • Chicago police investigate the scene of a shooting where a 2-year-old boy was shot in the head while he was traveling inside a car near Grant Park, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP)
  • Chicago police investigate the scene of a shooting where a 2-year-old boy was shot in the head while he was traveling inside a car near Grant Park, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP)
  • Chicago police work the scene of a shooting early Tuesday, April 6, 2021 in Chicago. Police say seven people were shot and wounded in a Chicago neighborhood overnight in the city’s latest wave of gun violence. Chicago police say the seven were involved in a fight on the sidewalk when shots were fired late Monday in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)
  • Chicago police work the scene of a shooting early Tuesday, April 6, 2021 in Chicago. Police say seven people were shot and wounded in a Chicago neighborhood overnight in the city’s latest wave of gun violence. Chicago police say the seven were involved in a fight on the sidewalk when shots were fired late Monday in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)
1 / 6

Chicago Violence

This April 2021 booking photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Jushawn Brown. Police say Brown has been charged with unlawful use of a firearm by a felon in connection with a shooting Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that wounded a 21-month-old boy who was riding in a car with him on Chicago’s famed Lake Shore Drive. (Chicago Police Department via AP)
·2 min read

CHICAGO (AP) — A man has been charged with unlawful use of a firearm by a felon in connection with a shooting that critically wounded a 21-month-old boy who was riding in a car with him on Chicago’s famed Lake Shore Drive, police said Thursday.

Jushawn Brown, 43, of Chicago, fired shots at another vehicle "during a road rage incident” about 11 a.m. Tuesday and was arrested later that day, police said. Police have said shots were fired at the car Brown was in, which crashed after the boy was shot in the temple.

It wasn’t immediately known whether Brown had a lawyer who could comment.

No other arrests have been reported. Chicago police spokeswoman Karie James said Thursday that police were still searching for the driver of the second vehicle, but she had no other information to release on that person.

The wounded boy remained in critical condition Thursday at Lurie Children’s Hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, where he was on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma to protect his brain, said Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, the hospital's associate chief medical officer and medical director of its pediatric ICU.

Malakooti said in a statement released Thursday by the hospital that identifies the boy as Kayden Swann that doctors on Wednesday night “were successful in lifting some of the sedation medication Kayden required to protect his brain."

“We are pleased to see Kayden make some recovery as he is demonstrating some return in brain activity. While it is still very early to make any meaningful prediction about his total recovery, we are optimistic about the clinical signs we are seeing," Malakooti said in the statement.

Tuesday's shooting happened just hours after seven people were shot and wounded Monday night in a fight a few miles away, in what is shaping up to be one of the most violent years for Chicago in memory.

The shooting Tuesday was near Grant Park on the city's South Side. Police have said one driver would not let the other enter a lane of traffic. Police recovered bullet casings over about a two-block stretch of the roadway.

A woman jumped out of the car with the child and someone drove them to Northwestern Memorial Hospital before the boy was transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Brown was scheduled to appear Thursday in bond court.

Recommended Stories

  • Boy, 1, critically injured in road-rage shooting on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive

    CHICAGO — A 1-year-old boy is in critical condition after he was shot in the right temple while he was in a car traveling north on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park on Tuesday morning, according to preliminary information from Chicago police. Witnesses called police just after 11 a.m. Central time when they heard shots fired on South Lake Shore Drive in the Loop, police said. A female passenger ...

  • Road Rage Shooting: Toddler, 2, wounded on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park

    A Good Samaritan in a Tesla witnessed the incident and drove the child to the hospital.

  • White supremacy is the root of all race-related violence in the US

    As fears of anti-Asian violence grow, police seek to be more visible to deter attacks. AP Photo/Kathy WillensAmid the disturbing rise in attacks on Asian Americans since March 2020 is a troubling category of these assaults: Black people are also attacking Asian Americans. White people are the main perpetrators of anti-Asian racism. But in February 2021, a Black person pushed an elderly Asian man to the ground in San Francisco; the man later died from his injuries. In another video, from New York City on March 29, 2021, a Black person pushes and beats an Asian American woman on the sidewalk in front of a doorway while onlookers observe the attack, then close their door on the woman without intervening or providing aid. As the current president of the Association for Asian American Studies and as an ethnic studies and critical race studies professor who specializes in Asian American culture, I wanted to address the climate of anti-Asian racism I was seeing at the start of the pandemic. So in April 2020, I created a PowerPoint slide deck about anti-Asian racism that my employer, the University of Colorado Boulder, turned into a website. That led to approximately 50 interviews, workshops, talks and panel presentations that I’ve done on anti-Asian racism, specifically in the time of COVID-19. The point I’ve made through all of those experiences is that anti-Asian racism has the same source as anti-Black racism: white supremacy. So when a Black person attacks an Asian person, the encounter is fueled perhaps by racism, but very specifically by white supremacy. White supremacy does not require a white person to perpetuate it. It’s not just white people White supremacy is an ideology, a pattern of values and beliefs that are ingrained in nearly every system and institution in the U.S. It is a belief that to be white is to be human and invested with inalienable universal rights and that to be not-white means you are less than human – a disposable object for others to abuse and misuse. The dehumanization of Asian people by U.S. society is driven by white supremacy and not by any Black person who may or may not hate Asians. During the pandemic, “yellow peril” rhetoric that blamed China for COVID-19 led to a 150% rise in anti-Asian harassment incidents reported to police in 2020. In particular, East Asian Americans or anyone who appeared to be of East Asian heritage or descent became targets for the misplaced anger of people blaming Chinese people or those they thought looked Chinese, even if they were of other ethnic backgrounds, like Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, Burmese, Thai or Filipino. A fear of disease White supremacy as the root of racism can be seen in the Latino man in Texas stabbing a Burmese family in March 2020, claiming he did so because they were Chinese and bringing the coronavirus into the U.S. Though the suspect may have mental health problems, his belief that this family posed a threat is driven by the white supremacist ideas of Chinese people being to blame for COVID-19. This same rhetoric of blaming anyone perceived to be Chinese for COVID-19 and attacking them has been found in countless reports of harassment, including one by a Vietnamese American woman who was spat at by a white man as she tried to enter a grocery store in March 2021. Four days later, video footage showed a 76-year-old Chinese woman who was punched in the face by a 39-year-old white man, on the same day that a white man killed eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta. [Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.] Stories of individual harassment and violence perpetrated against Asian Americans by white assailants don’t always get the same attention as the viral videos of Black aggression toward Asians. But underlying all these incidents is white supremacy, just as white supremacy is responsible for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes: White supremacy made Floyd into a Black male threat rather than a human being. Understanding the depth and reach of this ideology of racism can be challenging, but doing so brings each person, and the nation as a whole, closer to addressing systemic inequity. It’s not Black people whom Asian Americans need to fear. It’s white supremacy.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jennifer Ho, University of Colorado Boulder. Read more:Asian Americans top target for threats and harassment during pandemicRacism is behind anti-Asian American violence, even when it’s not a hate crime Jennifer Ho is affiliated with the Association for Asian American Studies.

  • Man faces gun charge after toddler shooting on Lake Shore Drive

    A 43-year-old man has been charged in connection with a Lake Shore Drive shooting that left a toddler in a medically-induced coma.

  • Texas Family Allegedly Killed By Two Brothers In Tragic Murder-Suicide Remembered As 'Fun-Loving, Simple' Clan

    Relatives and friends of a Texas family shot dead in an apparent murder suicide over the weekend are remembering them as a "fun-loving, simple" clan known for their kindness, intellectual prowess and friendly nature. Brothers Farhan Towid, 19, and Tanvir Towhid, 21, are believed to have systematically shot their mother, father, sister and grandmother in the family’s Allen home Saturday before taking their own lives in what Allen Police Sgt. John Felty described to Oxygen.com as a “tragedy beyond description.” Allen Police discovered the bodies of all six early Monday morning after a concerned friend called the department to request a welfare check around 1 a.m. after seeing that Farhan had posted a disturbing suicide note on Instagram taking credit for the killings. Police have identified the victims as Towhidul Islam, 54; Iren Islam, 56; Farbin Towhid, 19; and Altafun Nessa, 77, along with the two brothers. Farbin and Farhan had been twins. Farhan Towhid, Tanvir Towhid, Towhidul Islam, Iren Islam and Farbin Towhid. Photo: Facebook Shawn Ashan, a close friend of Towhidul Islam for about 11 years, told The Dallas Morning News he learned of the deaths from a friend on Monday morning. “I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’” he told the paper. “I couldn’t breathe for 20 minutes to be honest with you, I was crying in my office.” Towhidul had always been “proud” of his three children, Ashan said. Sahnewaz Hossain, who got to know Iren Islam in a religious class they took together, similarly recalled the pride she had in her family. “The mom always talked about the boys, how they’re good in studies, how they’re getting into good schools with scholarships,” she said. “Every time I would come home, I’d tell my kids how good they were doing. They were a fun-loving, simple family.” Fazia Rahman graduated from Allen High School with Farbin and Farhan last year. “Their parents were genuinely the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Rahman told The Dallas Morning News. “So friendly, caring. … They treated everyone like they were their own kids. They’d be like ‘Come in, we have food for you, come eat.’” Angelina Biswas, another fellow classmate, remembered Farbin as sweet and friendly. “[She] was so bubbly,” Biswas said. “Talking to her was like a lightbulb going off all the time.” Farbin had reportedly had a full scholarship to New York University. Friends said Nessa had been visiting the family from Bangladesh and had planned to return home last week but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before moving to Texas, the family had lived in New York City while Towhidul earned his master’s degree and worked multiple jobs to support his young family. Yuen Sang told The New York Post the family had lived in her Queens apartment building 15 years ago. She described the family as “such nice people” and said Towhidul had been a “wonderful man.” “He is a gentleman, very good man, love(s) his family. Works very hard," she said, describing how he worked as a baker when she knew him and how he was "so happy" when he received his master’s degree. But while Sang remembered young Farbin as being “very bright” and a “nice girl” she said Farhan had “some problems” even then and had gone to a special school. Farhan alluded to his personal struggles in the lengthy note he posted on Instagram, describing how he failed out of college, had been cutting himself since the 9th grade and struggled with debilitating depression. “He had some incidents lately that did not go well for him,” Felty said. According to the note, the two brothers not only decided take their own lives, but also kill their family because they didn’t want their loved ones to have to live with the grief and sadness they’d likely experience after their deaths. “If I killed just myself, they would be miserable,” Farhan wrote, according to local station KTVT. “I love my family. I genuinely do. And that’s exactly why I decided to kill them.” But those who knew the family say they hope they're remembered for more than their tragic final moments. “We don’t want this to be their family legacy,” Rahman told The Dallas Morning News. “They were such great people; they genuinely touched the lives of everyone who they came in contact with. … They were good people who had bright futures ahead of them.”

  • The Trump Organization has lawyered up for Manhattan D.A. investigation

    Former President Donald Trump's company has hired Ronald Fischetti, an experience criminal defense lawyer, to represent it in the broad criminal investigation underway by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr's office, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night. Fischetti, 84, and Trump Organization lawyer Alan Futerfas confirmed the hire, both telling the Journal they are pleased with the arrangement. Vance's office is investigating potential bank, tax, and insurance fraud tied to Trump's properties in New York and Chicago. As the investigation heated up, Vance brought on a forensic accounting firm to go over Trump's tax and accounting records and hired former federal prosecutor Mark Pomerantz as special assistant district attorney. Fischetti and Pomerantz were law partners for about eight years in the 1980s. Pomerantz is "straight as an arrow," Fischetti told the Journal. "We are both professionals, so there won't be any problems." People close to Trump and the Trump Organization reached out to several New York lawyers and alumni of the Manhattan D.A.'s office before landing on Fischetti, the Journal reports. "Many had a reputation for being aggressive advocates." More stories from theweek.comGeorgia's GOP lieutenant governor says Rudy Giuliani's false voter fraud claims triggered voting restrictionsThe Matt Gaetz allegations show how QAnon corrupts its followers5 scathingly funny cartoons about MLB vs. the GOP

  • Body camera footage released of Black man arrested while taking out trash

    Antone Austin and his girlfriend spoke with “GMA” about the two Los Angeles police officers who approached to arrest him in May 2019.

  • Stolen $30,000 gold chain linked to St. Petersburg mom’s murder, police say

    ST. PETERSBURG — Tyron Jackasal was riding in a stolen SUV when he found his target on March 30, police say. The Nissan Pathfinder had been following a black Volvo that evening. Then it stopped for a red light at 18th Avenue S and 22nd Street S. Jackasal got out of the passenger seat of the SUV and started shooting, police say. He was aiming for the Volvo’s driver, but police say he instead ...

  • Police officers are testifying against Chauvin, but the 'blue wall of silence' still stands, former cops say

    Bucking the so-called blue wall of silence, many senior Minneapolis police officers have taken the stand in recent days to decry former Officer Derek Chauvin’s use of force against George Floyd. But the testimony in Chauvin’s trial may not be the clean break from a deeply ingrained police mindset it appears to be.

  • Georgia's GOP lieutenant governor says Rudy Giuliani's false voter fraud claims triggered voting restrictions

    Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud weren't enough to overturn the presidential election, but they did motivate Republican lawmakers in Georgia to pass a law that restricts voting rights, the state's Republican lieutenant governor said. Under the new election law, signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) last month, it's harder for voters to request and drop off absentee ballots; ballot drop boxes are limited; voters can't be approached and handed food or water while they wait in line to cast their ballots; and the secretary of state is no longer chairman or a voting member of the Georgia State Election Board. During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) said the restrictions are "the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump. I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony." Joe Biden won Georgia, a fact that was affirmed during three different ballot counts in the state. Giuliani still tried to get Georgia to overturn the election results, appearing before state lawmakers to spread multiple falsehoods, including that thousands of dead people voted. He also claimed, without any evidence, that the voting machines were "like Swiss cheese. You can invade them. You can get in them. You can change the vote." He is now the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. More stories from theweek.comThe Matt Gaetz allegations show how QAnon corrupts its followers5 scathingly funny cartoons about MLB vs. the GOPThe Trump Organization has lawyered up for Manhattan D.A. investigation

  • Nursery camera catches home inspector pleasuring himself with Elmo doll, MI cops say

    “Just when I think I have seen it all, someone steps up and surprises me with a new level of disturbing actions.”

  • New York City police arrest man for 3 separate attacks on Asian Americans

    A man has been arrested for allegedly attacking Asian Americans on three separate occasions in New York City, police told ABC News. Joseph Russo, 27, was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with multiple counts of assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime in connection with all three incidents, according to the New York City Police Department. Russo allegedly pushed a 64-year-old Asian American woman on a sidewalk, knocking her down.

  • Former NFL player Phillip Adams killed five people and himself in South Carolina: AP

    One of the people he killed was a prominent doctor, who had treated him; he also killed two children, aged 9 and 5.

  • Trump breaks silence on possible allegations against Rep. Gaetz

    Donald Trump said in a written statement that Congressman Matt Gaetz never asked him for a pardon. Investigators are looking into whether he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor.

  • Toddler shot on LSD in medical coma; man questioned by CPD

    A 21-month-old boy is in a medically-induced coma after he was shot in the head while traveling in a car on Lake Shore Drive Tuesday.

  • Asia's rising coronavirus cases a worry as vaccine doubts cloud campaigns

    India, South Korea and Thailand faced mounting coronavirus infections on Thursday, undermining cautious hopes that Asia might be emerging from the worst of the pandemic as worries about safety threatened to delay vaccination drives. India reported a record 126,789 new cases, the third day this week tallies have surged to more than 100,000, catching by surprise authorities who have blamed crowding and a reluctance to wear masks as shops and offices reopen. More infectious variants of the virus may have played a role in India's surge, some epidemiologists say, with hundreds of cases found of variants first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

  • Former NFL Pro Phillip Adams Named as Suspect in SC Mass Shooting That Killed Beloved Doc

    Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty/HandoutThe former NFL pro Phillip Adams has been named as the suspect in a Wednesday shooting in York County, South Carolina, that left a beloved family doctor, his wife, two of their young grandchildren, and a maintenance worker dead.The York County Sheriff’s Office named the victims as Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara, who was 69. The two grandkids were Adah, 9, and Noah, 5. The fifth victim, 38-year-old James Lewis, was fixing the air conditioning in the home at the time of the shooting, according to his dad. A sixth person has been hospitalized with “serious gunshot wounds.” All five deaths have been ruled homicides by the York County Coroner’s Office.The shooting occurred just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Lesslie’s Marshall Road home, just outside Rock Hill, South Carolina. After an eight-hour manhunt, officers found the suspect at a nearby home but he killed himself as police closed in, the Associated Press and local outlets reported.When asked if the suspect was a neighbor of the Lesslie family, a York County Sheriff spokesperson confirmed: “He lives on the same road.” Public records show Adams and his mother live less than a mile down the road from the Lesslies.Lesslie was described as a “staple” in Rock Hill, who treated or knew almost everyone in the community thanks to a decades-long career. “To know the Lesslie family is to love them. Through the decades, they made such an incredible impact on our area and the lives of countless people—more than they could have ever known,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said in a Thursday statement, before extending his condolences to the Lewis family. “It’s impossible to imagine the grief that the extended Lesslie family must be feeling, including and especially their adult children.”The Associated Press and local outlets named the suspect as Adams. The 32-year-old played defensive back for many teams, including the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets, and Atlanta Falcons. He suffered multiple injuries during his playing career, including concussions and a broken ankle. Prior to his football career, Adams went to South Carolina State. It is not immediately clear if the Lesslie family had a relationship with the suspect.“We are just in shock. I can’t believe this happened. Who would want to hurt the Lesslies?” one friend of the family told The Daily Beast on Thursday, describing how the community is “devastated.” Lewis’ father, Tom, told local station WSOC9 that his son was working on the Lesslies’ air conditioning when the gunfire erupted. He said a coworker was critically injured.“He was my best friend”I’m talking to Tom Lewis the father of the Gastonia technician killed in a mass shooting at a home outside of Rock Hill. James Lewis was there working on the AC when a gunman killed the family at the home and Lewis, then critically injured Lewis’ coworker pic.twitter.com/NkleSRPA7R— Ken (@kenlemonWSOC9) April 8, 2021 Trent Faris, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, paid tribute to Dr. Lesslie, saying that he was one of the local community’s most well-known people. “I’ve lived in Rock Hill my entire life and Dr. Lesslie was my doctor growing up,” said Faris. “[He’s] been one of those people that everybody knows. He started Riverview Medical Center in Rock Hill... It’s been a staple in Rock Hill for years.”On his website, Dr. Lesslie wrote that he and Barbara were married for more than 40 years and had four children and six grandchildren. “In my spare time, I enjoy writing, golf, hunting, growing fruit and hops, and bagpiping,” he wrote, while also recounting his decades of emergency-medicine experience in Rock Hill as well as North Carolina.The doc was the author of eight books about real-life stories from the emergency room. In one, Angels in the ER, he wrote: “Twenty-five years in the ER have taught me a lot of things. I know without a doubt that life is fragile. I have come to understand that humility may be the greatest virtue. And I am convinced we need to take the time to say the things we deeply feel to the people we deeply care about.” Robert Lesslie Eleni Pagiazitis, who worked for Lesslie for four years in patient relations, described him as “the hardest, caring, and most sincere person.”“He loved life and his family to the fullest and most importantly, God. He was the sweetest and the funniest. He always cracked jokes with those he knew,” Pagiazitis told The Daily Beast, adding that Lesslie’s wife “was the most delightful, classy and lovely” woman.“His grandchildren were his greatest joy. He cherished family time beyond words. He and a heart of gold and was always giving his passion and professionalism to all his patients.” Pagiazitis said that she didn’t know Adams but hopes “justice is served. Taking five innocent lives. I’m so heartbroken.” Faris called the shooting “one of those strange things that a lot of people are going to have a hard time understanding.”“We are all shocked this could happen here in York County,” he said. “This is a mass shooting. Normally you think of a movie theater or a mall but we are treating this as a mass shooting because there were five victims killed.”According to local news reports, Adams was a seventh-round pick to the NFL in 2010. “I was on the phone with Coach [Mike] Singletary when my name came on the TV screen,” Adams told The Herald Online at the time, stating that the first beneficiary of his newfound fame would be his mother, Phyllis, who had been paralyzed in a car accident. “I can’t describe the feeling when I saw my name. I got picked by a team with a great coach and one that is on the way back up.”The Herald reported in 2010 that Adams’ mom is a longtime Rock Hill teacher who is known around town as “Mrs. P.A.” She did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Riverview Medical Center said in a Thursday statement: “Many people have asked questions. We certainly understand. There are still many questions to be answered. For now, we ask that you keep the Lesslie family and our office in your prayers.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Family of 9 claps back at notion they have 'too many kids' in viral video: ‘Mind yo damn business’

    This family of nine is not here to justify their large family.

  • Road Rage Shooting: 21-month-old child wounded on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park

    A good Samaritan in a Tesla witnessed the incident and drove the child to the hospital.

  • Sister Wives ' Kody Brown and Wife Robyn Discuss the Possibility of Having More Children

    "Women talk about that feeling of like, 'Oh, I'm done.' I've never really got that," Robyn Brown tells husband Kody Brown, who has a combined 18 children with his four wives