Crime Stoppers seeking tips in attempted $3,200 theft from Champaign Meijer
Officials said the theft happened the night of May 28. At approximately 9:12 p.m., three people walked into Champaign's Meijer at 2401 North Prospect Avenue and loaded several totes with merchandise, which they then put into a cart. One of the subjects was wearing a black and yellow Meijer jacket, and they pushed the cart outside and met up with the others.
Two teens hurt, one critically, in Champaign shooting Sunday night
The total amount of merchandise they had was more than $3,200, but loss prevention staff confronted them and recovered 75% of what the trio tried to steal. Officials said they still got away with $800 worth of merchandise.
The trio was recorded on camera as the theft happened. They were described as:
A male of unknown race, 26-35 years old, approximately 5′ 3″ to 5′ 9″ tall with an average build. He was wearing a black and yellow Meijer jacket, a black cap, a surgical mask and khaki pants
A Black male, 26-35 years old, approximately 5′ 3″ to 5′ 9″ tall with a slender build. He was wearing a back hoodie and blue jeans, and he had a gray and black beard and a mustache
A Black female, 26-50 years old, approximately 5′ 3″ to 5′ 9″ tall with a slender build. She was wearing a black hoodie, gray sweatpants, sunglasses, and had short gray hair.
Anyone who has information about this crime or the people responsible is asked to submit their knowledge to Champaign County Crime Stoppers. Tips can be submitted by calling 217-373-8477, visiting Crime Stoppers' website or using the P3 Tips app. All tips are 100% anonymous, even to law enforcement, and are eligible for a cash reward if the tip leads to an arrest.
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Besides that provision, the latest version also requires the Police Department to establish a policy addressing gun-pointing and any raids at homes with children 16 and younger as well as the elderly and disabled. On Feb. 21, 2019, police botched the execution of a warrant and went to the wrong home, restraining Young instead of an unrelated male suspect while she was getting ready for bed. Officers did not allow her to put on clothes and handcuffed her during their search. The raid at Young's home was captured on officers' body cameras and quickly went viral after the video was publicly released, sparking one of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's biggest police accountability scandals of her term. Since then, Young has crusaded against the Police Department's search warrant process and was awarded a $2.9 million settlement in December 2021. In 2022, Hadden attempted to push the Anjanette Young ordinance forward in a City Council committee but failed in a 10-4 vote. That was after a previous version presented to the body in 2021 also never garnered a floor vote as Lightfoot argued such reforms should be reflected within Police Department directives, not codified in law. The earlier legislation would have banned no-knock warrants except in the case of 'exigent circumstances.' One critic of Johnson's decision to back off a no-knock warrant ban in the new version came from an unlikely corner of the City Council. Ald. Raymond Lopez, a member of City Council's more conservative bloc, called for a six-month moratorium on no-knock warrants in 2020. He said last week, 'If someone like me who is unashamed of my support for law enforcement can propose significant and sweeping changes to our warrant execution, why can't a progressive mayor?' Meanwhile, Illinois Democrats are still working through their own proposal for a statewide ban. This past session in the General Assembly, Young testified before state lawmakers on legislation sponsored by state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, to prohibit most no-knock search warrants. It passed committee before lawmakers adjourned, and Buckner said he intends to move it along either in the fall veto session or next year. The former mayoral candidate noted that it had bipartisan support and also the backing of the Illinois State Rifle Association. 'If Democrats in the city of Chicago can't figure out how to get this done, but you have Republicans from downstate and from rural districts who understand the need and the necessity, it's a little curious,' Buckner said. 'But I believe that we'll find a way to get there, both in the city and in the state.' Young said she wasn't involved much in politics before the botched raid in 2019. Now, she can rattle off the City Council legislative process, the ins and outs of court cases on other wrongful police raids and the latest negotiations with the consent decree monitor. She said she isn't fazed by the latest hurdle in her long-winding road to get to what she hopes is the final stage of her namesake ordinance, either. 'Things start to fade when no one is paying attention, and so I refuse to let the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois not pay attention to me and what happened to me,' Young said.
