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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Freeport man charged with armed violence in Officer Krystal Rivera's ‘mistaken' fatal shooting
Authorities have charged a 25-year-old Freeport man of armed violence in connection with the fatal shooting of Officer Krystal Rivera. Charged is Adrian Rucker, the department announced said early Sunday. The charges came two days after he allegedly pointed a rifle at Officer Krystal Rivera and other tactical officers from the Gresham (6th) District, who had chased a person into a Chatham apartment while trying to conduct an investigatory stop. Rivera, 36, was mistakenly shot and killed by another officer during the confrontation, police have said. Department investigators are still probing the attempted investigative stop near 82nd and Drexel that led up to the shooting Rucker also faces felony counts of use of a firearm without a FOID card, possession of a fake ID and drug possession, police said. He was set to appear in bond court Sunday morning, according to a news release. Rivera had been a police officer for four years and leaves behind a young daughter. A resident of the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, she was the first city police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year. City leaders, police brass and friends described her as a hard worker with an independent streak who loved her job. Around 10:08 p.m. Thursday, officers found and detained Rucker, 25, and a 26-year-old woman, also from Freeport, in a gated yard near an apartment building at 8215 S. Maryland Ave., according to police sources and court records. Authorities had previously issued six arrest warrants for Rucker. According to police sources, those warrants are for criminal damage to property, theft under $500, and two alleged instances of domestic battery, all out of Stephenson County in northwestern Illinois. He also had a warrant for aggravated identity theft out of northwest suburban Rolling Meadows and another for possession of fake identification out of Winnebago County, court records show. The woman had one active warrant, according to police sources. According to Cook County Court records, Rucker was first arrested in April 2024 for alleged aggravated identity theft in Rolling Meadows. He was released pending trial, records show, but failed to appear for a June court date and Judge Ellen Beth Mandeltort issued an arrest warrant in July 2024. The woman has not been charged with anything related to Rivera's death, but appeared in Cook County bond court Saturday regarding her arrest warrant out of Stephenson County, court records show. Her next court date is scheduled for Thursday.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Fixing water mains installed too close to sewer lines could cost Chicago millions, IG report says
Scores of water mains throughout Chicago are too close to sewer lines, according to a new report that cautions the potential risks to public health could cost taxpayers millions of dollars to fix. In a six-page letter released Wednesday, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg slammed the Department of Water Management for failing to ensure contractors complied with state and city regulations intended to prevent human and industrial waste from tainting drinking water. Witzburg said experts told her investigators that the level of pressure maintained in underground water mains likely thwarted any contamination. But she urged the city to improve its communication with Chicagoans, in particular when sections of the system malfunction and boil orders are issued. 'Parts of the city's network of water mains have lost full pressurization multiple times in recent years, raising the specter that structural protections against a contamination event might fail,' Witzburg wrote in a December letter to Randy Conner, the city's water commissioner. One example cited by the inspector general involved a July leak inside the century-old Roseland Pumping Station that prompted a boil order for the Auburn Gresham, Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods. The water department took six hours to warn residents after water pressure began to drop, the inspector general noted. Water and sewer lines are supposed to be at least 10 feet apart. Yet in more than 1,200 spots in the city, including multiple blocks on some streets, work performed by water department contractors failed to comply with state and local health regulations, according to the inspector general's report. As of May 2024, the city had spent nearly $10 million fixing the problems. Water department officials have attempted to force the contractors to pay for alleged mistakes, a potential solution disputed in lawsuits the contractors filed in Cook County Court. One of the contractors contends its share alone could cost $83 million. City officials borrowed more than $400 million during the past decade to replace leaky water mains. An unnamed water department official told the inspector general there was little, if any, oversight of how the work was conducted. In a reply this month to Witzburg, Conner said there are no threats to public health because the city constantly monitors water pressure and promptly detects leaks. 'These extensive … monitoring and operational steps protect Chicago's drinking water from health and safety risks,' Conner wrote. Left unaddressed by the inspector general's report is the fact that hundreds of miles of new water mains were attached to service lines made of brain-damaging lead. Chicago has more than 400,000 of the toxic pipes, by far the most of any U.S. city. Local plumbing codes required the use of lead to convey drinking water into homes until Congress banned the practice in 1986. Regulations adopted by former President Joe Biden's administration require every one of the city's lead service lines to be replaced within two decades, an initiative that will cost billions more than the water main replacement program and the fixes required under health regulations.
Chicago Tribune
20-02-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Fixing water mains installed too close to sewer lines could cost Chicago millions, IG report says
Scores of water mains throughout Chicago are too close to sewer lines, according to a new report that cautions the potential risks to public health could cost taxpayers millions of dollars to fix. In a six-page letter released Wednesday, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg slammed the Department of Water Management for failing to ensure contractors complied with state and city regulations intended to prevent human and industrial waste from tainting drinking water. Witzburg said experts told her investigators that the level of pressure maintained in underground water mains likely thwarted any contamination. But she urged the city to improve its communication with Chicagoans, in particular when sections of the system malfunction and boil orders are issued. 'Parts of the city's network of water mains have lost full pressurization multiple times in recent years, raising the specter that structural protections against a contamination event might fail,' Witzburg wrote in a December letter to Randy Conner, the city's water commissioner. One example cited by the inspector general involved a July leak inside the century-old Roseland Pumping Station that prompted a boil order for the Auburn Gresham, Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods. The water department took six hours to warn residents after water pressure began to drop, the inspector general noted. Water and sewer lines are supposed to be at least 10 feet apart. Yet in more than 1,200 spots in the city, including multiple blocks on some streets, work performed by water department contractors failed to comply with state and local health regulations, according to the inspector general's report. As of May 2024, the city had spent nearly $10 million fixing the problems. Water department officials have attempted to force the contractors to pay for alleged mistakes, a potential solution disputed in lawsuits the contractors filed in Cook County Court. One of the contractors contends its share alone could cost $83 million. City officials borrowed more than $400 million during the past decade to replace leaky water mains. An unnamed water department official told the inspector general there was little, if any, oversight of how the work was conducted. In a reply this month to Witzburg, Conner said there are no threats to public health because the city constantly monitors water pressure and promptly detects leaks. 'These extensive … monitoring and operational steps protect Chicago's drinking water from health and safety risks,' Conner wrote. Left unaddressed by the inspector general's report is the fact that hundreds of miles of new water mains were attached to service lines made of brain-damaging lead. Chicago has more than 400,000 of the toxic pipes, by far the most of any U.S. city. Local plumbing codes required the use of lead to convey drinking water into homes until Congress banned the practice in 1986. Regulations adopted by former President Joe Biden's administration require every one of the city's lead service lines to be replaced within two decades, an initiative that will cost billions more than the water main replacement program and the fixes required under health regulations.
