Slain cop honored as 'one of the best of the best'

The star of slain Chicago police Officer Thomas Wortham IV was to be retired weeks ago with a ceremony honoring his sacrifice, but it had to be postponed because it fell on the same day as services for Michael Flisk, the fifth officer killed in the line of duty in 2010.Today

A week ago today, the moment finally arrived for Wortham's star No. 6181 to be placed inside a glass cabinet in police headquarters beside those of the 477 other Chicago police officers killed in the line of duty since the 1800s.

Wortham was a 30-year-old Englewood District officer who was fatally shot in May when four people tried to rob him of his motorcycle while he was off-duty outside his parents' Chatham home. Just days before Wortham's death, the Tribune had quoted him in a story about how he and others in Chatham were battling to keep their middle-class neighborhood safe.

The department found his death to be in the line of duty because he had declared his office in trying to ward off the robbers. Wortham had just returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq with the Army National Guard.

The stars of Flisk, an evidence technician killed in November, and Officers Thor Soderberg and Michael Bailey, who were each shot and killed in July, are still to be retired.

While fielding questions from reporters after the ceremony, Wortham's father, Thomas Wortham III, himself a retired Chicago police sergeant, wiped away tears as he discussed street violence.

"This is too much killing," he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mayor Richard Daley recalled meeting Wortham at a South Side event and "just looking at his smile."

"You can see the energy. And that was the enthusiasm," Daley said. "It wasn't a job. It was a profession. He wanted to serve the people of the city of Chicago."

Cmdr. Keith Calloway, one of Wortham's bosses while in charge of the Englewood District, described the young officer as "truly one of the best of the best." He said Wortham had been assigned to the district a short time before he was redeployed to Iraq.

"I remember telling him to hurry back. 'I have work for you to do here.' And he smiled and said he would be back," Calloway said. "Well, Tom made it back from overseas, but before we really had a chance to put Tom back on the home team, the Lord called Tom home to be on his team -- the police force in heaven."

The elder Wortham said his son adopted the same policy as he did when he worked the streets as a cop -- to be "more concerned with protecting other people."

"We would never think that we would be the ones victimized by the danger of the street," said Wortham, who fired at his son's assailants from the front door.

"We need to worry about the people who are down and out," Wortham said. "Obviously, we have some serious problems in this society. We can no longer ignore those people because they will continue to kill us."

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Rush: I Haven’t Decided Whether To Move Office

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) has a Congressional office in the most violent police beat in the city, but he emphasizes that has not decided whether to move his office in the wake of the shootings in Tucson.

In the wake of the shooting this past Saturday, which killed six people and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Rush has received many queries about his safety.

On Tuesday, Rush said he was considering moving out of his office at 700-706 E. 79th St. The office is located in Chicago Police Beat 624 in the Gresham District, which was recently named the “most violent” police beat in the city, Rush’s office said.

The area near 79th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue is known for deadly shootings, criminal assaults, robberies and gang and drug activity, Rush’s office said.

It is also not far from the locations where two Chicago Police officers were shot and killed in the past year. Officer Thomas Wortham IV was shot and killed in May less than a mile away in the 8400 block of South King Drive, and Officer Michael Bailey was shot and killed just a few blocks away at 74th Street and Evans Avenue in July.

Rush told CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker Tuesday that moving out of the district is “an option that I will entertain, but it’s not my primary option.”

But in a news release Wednesday, Rush emphasized that he has not made a final decision whether to close the office.

He said appropriate police resources need to be devoted to the area, and he wants to ensure any constituent who visits his district office is safe.

Rush told Tucker Tuesday that he has been thinking about the safety of his staff after the recent tragedy in Tucson, where six people died – Including a member of Giffords’ staff – and 13 others were wounded – including Gifford herself.

“The last time I was in D.C., they were under the desk because there was gunfire going on around them,” Rush said. “Being responsible, you have to take those things into consideration.”

Rush said that regardless of what he decides about moving the office, he wants his constituents to know that he’s not abandoning them.

“I’m in the fight to the end. I’m not a quitter,” Rush said.

Rush said that, as part of his continued efforts to fight violence, he’s holding a town hall meeting in Chatham on Friday.

Also this week, Rush’s fellow congressman, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Chicago) has called for more federal spending on security for members of Congress.

Jackson is proposing legislation that would increase the budget of each congressman and senator for security by 10 percent.

Cops: Mother slain in SUV was targeted

A mother of three who was fatally shot in her vehicle on a South Side block that rarely sees violence was targeted, police told neighbors Sunday.

Close family friends said Erica Greene, 40, was a switchboard operator at the Drake Hotel who had no enemies.

"She got along with everybody," said JoAnn Garth, 47, who grew up with Greene in the West Chatham neighborhood. "That's why (the shooting) is so strange."

Police told neighbors Greene was targeted and shot by someone on foot. Her Kia Sportage crashed into a parked car before coming to a stop on a neighbor's front lawn a few homes away, police said.

Veejay Zala, a Chicago police news affairs officer, would not comment about a possible motive. No one was in custody Sunday.

The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Saturday in the 8000 block of South Princeton Avenue in West Chatham. Brick bungalows with manicured lawns line the quiet block, which neighbors said is safe and rarely sees violence.

Police said they found Greene unresponsive in her vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Greene's death a homicide.

On Sunday, shards of glass remained in front of the two-story brick apartment building where Greene lived with her teenage daughter, who declined to comment. More glass was sprinkled across the front lawn of a home a few doors down. That's where Greene's SUV had come to a stop after hitting a parked vehicle.

Officers canvassed the neighborhood and said they looked at surveillance video from a camera at a neighboring building.

Nadina Thomas, who lives a floor above Greene and whose daughter was Greene's godchild, said she was playing Uno with her children and boyfriend when she heard four consecutive gunshots.

Her boyfriend ran to the dining room, then outside, and saw Greene's car on a neighbor's lawn.

"I looked at her like a sister," said Thomas, 26, sobbing and blotting her nose with a tissue.

Russell Menkes, the Drake Hotel general manager, said Greene worked at the hotel for about five years.

"She was very well-liked by her peers," Menkes said.

Suspect charged in motorcycle club slayings

A 27-year-old man was charged this morning with the Sunday shooting deaths of two Hawks Motorcycle Club members and the wounding of five others in their South Side club building, police said.

Charles Ervin, of the 8200 block of South Wolcott Avenue, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Emmit Suddoth, 38, and Bryant Glass, 39, police said.

Ervin also was charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and five counts of aggravated battery with a firearm for shooting five others, police said. According to court records, Ervin was convicted in 2007 for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

The shootings happened about 1:40 a.m. Sunday at the Hawks Motorcycle Club at 149 W. 75th Street in the West Chatham neighborhood. Police said the shooting stemmed from an argument in the club.

Ervin allegedly opened fire after the dispute and killed Suddoth and Glass and wounded five others, including two women.

Emmit Suddoth of the 9500 block of South Union Avenue, was pronounced dead at 2:28 a.m. at Stroger Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was shot in the back.

Bryant Glass of the 900 block of West 116th Street died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the office.

The five other victims were taken in critical condition Sunday to area hospitals.

Ervin was scheduled to appear in bond court later today.

Moseley Braun says she's most qualified for mayor's job

Rev. Jesse Jackson talks with Carol Moseley Braun, as Senator James Meeks (left) addresses the public ande Congressman Danny Davis (right) listens in today. (Abel Uribe/ Chicago Tribune)

African-American political leaders New Year's Day lauded Carol Moseley Braun as a unity candidate who is the best choice to replace retiring Mayor Richard Daley during a rally just hours after she became the only major black politician left in the campaign.

Flanked by prominent elected black politicians who dropped out to endorse her bid, the former U.S. senator told a crowd at the weekly Rainbow PUSH meeting she has “the most credentials and the most qualifications and experience of all of the candidates running.

"And so they just chose the most qualified candidate for the job,” said Braun, who largely dropped out of elected politics after losing her bid for re-election to the Senate in 1998.

She stood alongside state Sen. James Meeks and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, both of whom dropped out to endorse her, as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who held meetings aimed at getting the major African-American contenders to unite behind one candidate to improve the chances of a black contender winning the mayoral election.

“People said that we would never come together,” Meeks said before dozens of people in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition auditorium on the South Side. “People said that our egos were too big, but we proved everybody wrong.”

"We need one African-American candidate running for mayor of the city of Chicago. One African-American candidate," Meeks said.

The event, which began with Jackson and his son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., touting job creation and reducing unemployment, turned into a pep rally for Braun.

“This is beginning to build,” Braun said. “This is getting our bandwagon going … getting the people together all over Chicago who have supported and are willing to support this message, this candidacy.”

"The realities are that when our community comes together, as the song says, ain't no stopping us now," Davis said. "Because we are on the move."

But the candidates also tried to hit a note of inclusion, saying issues of jobs and unemployment are important around the city, not just for African-American neighborhoods they contend have been underrepresented.

"Dr. King has got to be smiling on this day because we're getting the coalition together again," Braun said. "We're going to bring black, white, brown, one side of town to the other back together again to create jobs."

When Davis dropped out Friday evening, he acknowledged that with multiple black candidates on the Feb. 22 ballot, there was a risk that supporters and campaign money would be split.

"I want to make sure at least one of us has what is needed," said Davis, who called Braun "the best candidate."

The latest shake-up in the contest to succeed the long-serving Daley came after a series of meetings and phone calls among African-American leaders attempting to field a single contender who could improve the odds of electing the city's first black mayor since the late 1980s.

The late pressure from the Braun campaign included a letter of endorsement and fundraising from several well-known black businessmen, including ComEd CEO Frank Clark, who had been backing state Sen. James T. Meeks for mayor.

The strategy resulted in two of three top black mayoral contenders bowing out in about a week.

Braun said she is emboldened by the endorsements from Davis and Meeks, who dropped out last week. Braun called it a "great way to start the new year."

"I'm so pleased to have their support," she said. "Their endorsements ... bring us closer to winning this election."

Meeks said the three are defying critics who didn't think they could unify behind a single candidate. The pastor of a South Side megachurch added that it is important to address problems hurting the black community.

Davis' departure leaves the mayoral contest with only four major candidates.

In a city where race and ethnicity play major roles in local politics, the contest now features former Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle as the only major Latino candidates facing off against Braun and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Chico instantly tried to portray both Braun and Emanuel as " Washington, D.C., politicians" while saying he has worked for years in Chicago, serving on boards and as Daley's chief of staff.

"I succeeded in every public service position I held because I built coalitions across ethnic and racial lines," Chico said in a statement.

Emanuel's campaign, though, isn't expected to cede any ground on African-American voters. Emanuel has pointed out that he was chief of staff to President Barack Obama. The nation's first black president heaped praise on Emanuel this fall when he left to run for mayor.

"With all of the challenges we face, we must come together to work on behalf of all Chicagoans and address the needs of every neighborhood," Emanuel said in a statement.

Left unspoken amid the consensus efforts is the blunt assessment by many political players that black and white voters are still focused on race more than two decades after Harold Washington was elected the city's first African-American mayor. Washington was the only black candidate on the ballot when he won his first term in 1983. Black leaders also registered tens of thousands of new voters before that election.

Davis insisted he isn't backing Braun simply because she is African-American.

"I just want to unify behind the best candidate," Davis said. "Everybody I know thinks Carol is the best candidate."

At first, Davis said he wasn't so much dropping out of the contest as "dropping into victory" by endorsing Braun. He later clarified that he is indeed ending his campaign.

"I am totally dropping out of the race. I am supporting Carol Moseley Braun with every ounce of fervor that I have," Davis said Friday at a hastily-called news conference at his West Loop headquarters. "I am even going to give her some money. I am going to try to get every person who thought that they might support Danny Davis to switch their support to Carol Moseley Braun. In fact, I will start tonight."

Davis and Braun both insisted Thursday that they would keep running for mayor. Then they met again Friday, leading to Davis' decision with just hours left before the new year.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson brokered a roughly four-hour meeting Wednesday night with Davis and Braun at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters that was also attended by several ministers, business leaders and politicians. Among them was Rep. Bobby Rush, who is backing Braun, and state Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Davis supporter.

Jackson said he talked with the candidates about who has the best chance in the election as well as where they stand on myriad issues facing the city.

Other African-Americans still on the ballot include activist Patricia Van Pelt Watkins and perennial candidate William "Dock" Walls.

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'Person of interest' questioned in biker club slayings

A blood-soaked towel is left behind on the street today in front of the Hawks Motorcycle Club in Chicago, where two people were killed and five wounded during the early morning hours. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

During their last conversation, Finley Smiley and his brother-in-law Emmit Suddoth talked about taking a trip to Memphis, Tenn., for a motorcycle event.

Smiley and Suddoth, members of the Hawks Motorcycle Club in Chicago's West Chatham neighborhood, wanted to travel there to support an affiliate chapter.

But about 2 a.m., Smiley got a phone call from Suddoth's cell phone. This time, it wasn't his brother-in-law of 20 years calling to talk about Memphis. It was a Chicago police detective who told him Suddoth had been shot.

"Emmit and I were like brothers," said Smiley, who like other relatives this morning was still trying to piece together the events that left Suddoth and a second man dead at the Hawks clubhouse on Chicago's South Side.

The other man killed early Sunday was Bryant Glass, 39, of the 900 block of West 116th Street. Glass died of multiple gunshot wounds, and Suddoth was killed after he was shot in the back. Five other people were injured in the shooting, which took place at 1:39 a.m., and were in critical condition.

Police were talking to a person of interest in the case, officials said. But no charges had been filed as of early Monday morning.

On Sunday afternoon, family members of both victims were trying to put together the pieces that led to violence in the 100 block of West 75th Street.

Smiley, 51, said the club's members held meetings there on the first of each month. Suddoth was the club's president.

"He was a fun-loving person," Smiley said. "His life was motorcycles."

Smiley attended the meeting Saturday night. But, he said, he left so he could get some sleep because meetings sometimes ran late into the night.

The shooting stemmed from an argument in the club, police said. A gunman, who opened fire after the unspecified dispute, killed Suddoth and Glass and wounded five others, including two women, before fleeing the scene, police said.

Of the five people in critical condition, two were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, two were taken to Stroger Hospital and one was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva said.

Suddoth was pronounced dead at 2:28 a.m. at Stroger, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Details about when and where Glass died were not immediately available, a medical examiner's spokesman said.

Smiley said Suddoth was unemployed but had previously done work rehabbing old houses.

Records indicate that Suddoth was one of seven people named in a federal indictment that alleged a $35 million mortgage-fraud scheme. Federal authorities allege that the group recruited buyers for homes on the South Side and in the south suburbs that were purchased using mortgages based on fraudulent information.

Smiley would not comment on the indictment Sunday.

Suddoth was the youngest of three children. He had two older sisters, including Smiley's wife. Suddoth lived with his mother and stepfather, a retired Chicago police commander, Smiley said. His parents declined to comment Sunday.

Bryant Glass Jr., 19, a senior at Proviso East High School in Maywood, said his father used to ride a sports motorcycle but a few years ago instead began riding a Harley. When he made the switch, Glass said, he saw a change in his father.

Before, "he usually didn't carry a knife," Glass said, adding that his father started to after joining the club. "I knew it was bad because I really didn't hang with him much anymore. I guess it was for my safety."

Cops: Chatham Man fatally shot by police after trying to run over officer

A 29-year-old man was fatally shot by police early this past New Year's Day morning after he tried to run over a police officer who attempted to stop his vehicle in the Avalon Park neighborhood, officials said.

Tory Davis of the 400 block of West 81st street was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The shooting happened about 1:52 a.m. after officers working as part of the federally funded Operation Safe City initiative were alerted to a crash that had just happened in the 800 block of East 79th Street and had injured another person, Chicago police said in a statement.

The officers, who were part of the initiative targeting high-crime areas on the weekends, tried to pull over the vehicle which witnesses told them was involved in the accident, according to police.

According to the police statement, the car, which was being driven by Davis, was stopped at a nearby gas station but after being ordered by police to get out of the car, the vehicle began moving in the direction of one of the officers "in an attempt to strike one of the officers."

Police said the officer discharged his gun after being in "fear of his life."

A gas station attendant who was working last night said that the station was busy at the time and while he did not see what happened, people were coming in saying that someone had been shot.

The victim of the traffic crash was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. No police were injured.

The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating.

New Years message from Ald. Lyle

An Important New Year's Message from Alderman Freddrenna M. Lyle Dear Friend, Two important programs that visibly improve Chicago's neighborhoods open their doors after midnight this New Year's Eve. So if your sidewalks are in disrepair, your roof is caving in, your porch needs supporting or your heater barely warms your house -- call 311 after the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve to sign up for one of these 2 programs: · The Shared Cost Sidewalk Program is a voluntary program in which property owners and the City of Chicago share the cost of replacing sidewalks. · The Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP) provides grants to low-income homeowners to repair roofs, porches and heating units that are in serious disrepair. Please print this information for your neighbors who aren't on-line and encourage them to consider signing up for these programs. They can sign up any time after Jan. 1, 2011. Sincerely, Freddrenna M. Lyle 6th Ward Alderman Call 311 after Midnight to Fix Your Sidewalks Through the Shared Cost Sidewalk program, owners pay part of the cost of replacing the sidewalk in front of their property, or on both sides of a corner property, and courtesy walks. The City pays the other part of that cost, as well as for any extra-required work, such as ADA-compliant ramps. Property owners pay a set square foot cost: $3. Qualifying senior citizens and those with disabilities pay half that rate: $1.50. The approximate cost to a homeowner of an average mid-block property will range from $500 to $1,000. Those prices are significantly below what a private company would charge. When you call 311, make sure to tell them that you want to participate in the "Shared Cost Sidewalk Program". You must give them the building owner-occupant's complete name with a contact phone number, and the building's complete address. Call 311 after Midnight to Fix Your Porch or Roof Roof and Porch Repair/Replacement Applicants must call Chicago's City Services at 311 beginning after midnight January 1, 2011 to be placed on the intake list for services. The Department of Community Development will accept applicants based on available funding. Heating Unit Repair/Replacement Applicants must call 311 between October 27 and March 3rd, 2011. Improvements are limited to the repair and replacement of heating units. Thank you for your continued support and have a Happy New Year! Sincerely, Freddrenna Lyle