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Lawsuit alleges Chicago police officer ‘recklessly’ shot 13-year-old carjacking suspect

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CHICAGO) — A 13-year-old boy remains hospitalized after a Chicago police officer shot him “recklessly, callously and wantonly” during a foot pursuit last week, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

The teen was struck once on May 18 after fleeing from a stolen car, Chicago police said.

The lawsuit, which was filed on the teen’s behalf in U.S. District Court on Thursday, claims the officer chased the boy on an “inherently dangerous” foot pursuit that was unjustified because the boy was unarmed. According to a number of witness accounts, the boy had his hands up when he was shot.

The teen was identified in the lawsuit as a Black seventh grader with the initials A.G.

“A.G. is currently lying in a hospital bed with a bullet still lodged in his body after being shot in the back by an officer with the Chicago Police Department,” the lawsuit states. “A.G. and his family are waiting to learn whether he will ever be able to walk again.”

The lawsuit names the Chicago police officer, whose identity has not been released, and the city of Chicago as defendants.

In a statement to ABC News, the city’s law department said it has yet to be officially served the complaint.

“Upon receipt, the complaint will be reviewed,” Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the law department, said. “We will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation.”

The lawsuit claims that A.G. was shot through the back and suffered a spinal cord injury, multiple rib fractures and an esophageal injury, among other wounds.

“While A.G. survived the shooting, he has been permanently and catastrophically injured and remains hospitalized,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit alleges the officer used excessive force “in violation of the U.S. Constitution” and that the Chicago Police Department continues to disproportionately use excessive and deadly force against Black people. It also claims that the city has failed to implement a foot pursuit policy as required by a federal consent decree on police reform efforts.

The court-ordered overhaul of CPD policies followed the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald and a Department of Justice investigation into the murder. An independent report released last month found that the police department failed to adopt a permanent foot pursuit policy by the consent decree’s September deadline.

“Tragically, the deep-seeded systemic problems that led to the entry of the Consent Decree — implicit bias and failures in training, supervision, and accountability — still exist today,” the lawsuit states. “A.G. is the latest victim of CPD’s systemic failures.”

The family is seeking damages for A.G.’s past and future medical expenses and is demanding a trial by jury.

The shooting is currently being investigated by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), an independent agency, which said that no weapon was recovered from the scene. The officer involved has been temporarily placed on routine administrative duties, the police department said.

Chicago police officers were attempting to stop a stolen vehicle when the teen got out of the car and fled, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said during a press briefing last week. Authorities allege the teen was involved in two recent carjackings.

Brown said at the time that he was limited in what he could discuss about the shooting.

“This investigation will reveal the facts,” he said, adding that COPA has his department’s full support.

In a statement, COPA said it was “committed to a full and thorough investigation into the officer’s use of force to determine if their actions were in accordance with Department policy and training.”

The difference in treating child victims of gun violence versus adults

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday left 21 people dead — including 19 students and two teachers — and 17 additional people injured.

As of Thursday, at least six people remain hospitalized including three children and one adult at University Hospital in San Antonio and two adults at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston.

And while all gunshot victims receive the same core care, there are differences when it comes to treating pediatric patients compared to adults.

Dr. Michael Rodriguez, a family physician and a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said child patients may require different types of medication, or different doses depending on their weights and heights, as well as different levels of fluids.

“The fact of whether they are adults or children is a major issue,” he told ABC News. “Partially because it requires a different level of expertise so, with children, you need to have some pediatric expertise.”

This means a child gunshot patient will need to be treated by emergency providers who specialize in pediatrics, including pediatric surgeons, pediatric anesthesiologists, pediatric nurses and so on.

All gunshot patients are checked to make sure their airways are clear, that they are breathing on their own and have good circulation, medical experts who spoke with ABC News said.

But one unique aspect of many pediatric trauma centers is the availability of a child life specialist, according to Dr. Katherine Hoops, a pediatric intensive care physician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

Child life specialists are health care professionals who help children and families handle the challenges of hospitalization, illness and injury, including by psychologically preparing them for certain procedures, offering therapeutic play and coordinating support services.

“They specialize in child development and helping the child to cope with that injury from their early presentation to the hospital,” she told ABC News.

Hoops, who is also core faculty at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, added pediatric patients admitted with gunshot wounds are often some of the most severely ill patients.

“Many of [them] will have the highest rates of readmission to the hospital for complications for their injuries and they do unfortunately have some of the highest mortality rates of pediatric trauma patients,” she said.

According to police, the gunman arrived at the school wielding a Daniel Defense AR-15-style assault rifle.

AR-15s have been used in several mass shootings including at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2011; a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017; and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

Doctors explained that, traditionally, injuries from handguns leave clean entry and exit wounds or just become lodged in the skin and, because they are traveling at a low velocity, do not cause life-threatening bleeding unless a major organ or artery is hit.

But bullets from AR-15s exit the barrel at three times the speed that handgun bullets exit the barrel. This means that when AR-15 bullets hit the skin, they often leave huge entry and exit wounds that are not clean.

“When a high-velocity firearm enters a body, it basically creates a wave and a blast,” Dr. Lillian Liao, a pediatric trauma surgeon at University Hospital in San Antonio — treating four patients from the Uvalde shooting — told “Nightline.” “So it looks like a body part got blown up … A handgun may create one small hole, whereas a high-velocity firearm will create a giant hole in the body that is with missing tissue.”

She added all the patients had “large destructive wounds.”

“By that, I mean that there were not only a small hole in the body part, but large areas of tissue missing in various body parts that sustained injuries from the firearm,” Liao said.

Rodriguez said that because assault weapons are designed to shoot more rounds of bullets than handguns, pistols or revolvers, people are more likely to have life-threatening injuries.

“As a result, people don’t just get one wound, they may get numerous wounds and the more bullets that hit a person, the more likely vital organs they could hit or arteries or vessels that could lose greater amounts of blood,” he said.

This can be particularly devastating when it comes to a child with a gunshot wound.

“When you’re talking about a small child, that firearm that’s high velocity will just destroy a significant portion of tissue and is more likely to hit major organs,” Liao said. “And a child or an adult can bleed to death in as little as five minutes.”

While medical and surgical advances have helped lower the number of shootings that result in fatalities, the doctors said they want efforts to focus on driving down gun violence overall.

“We need to take into account that there are things that we know that work and prevent these events … licensing minimum age requirements, large capacity magazine restrictions, safe storage and safe handling requirements,” Hoops said. “We — as clinicians, pediatricians, our surgical colleagues — we support those initiatives that prevent patients from ever coming to our care.”

ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

Lorraine Bracco, Jennifer Lopez and more pay tribute to Ray Liotta

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Stars are paying tribute to actor Ray Liotta after the news of his death was announced Thursday. The Goodfellas actor died at the age of 67, ABC News confirmed.

Here are some of the messages remembering the late actor and his impact:

Lorraine Bracco: “I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.”

Jennifer Lopez: “Ray was my partner in crime on Shades of Blue … the first thing that comes to mind is he was so kind to my children… We lost a great today … RIP RAY … it’s so sad to lose you what seems way to soon … I will remember you always. Sending so much love and strength to your daughter Karsen, your family and all your loved ones.”

Adam Sandler: “Tremendous actor. Sweetheart of a dad. Such a great funny man to know. Prayers are with his whole family.”

Seth Rogen: “I can’t believe Ray Liotta has passed away. He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favorite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace.”

Josh Brolin: “My buddy. My friend. How so soon? Why? I’ll miss you. I will think about seeing you at Gold’s often, talking about what to do next, how to find something together. I always looked up to you — the work was always so good, but the man you were always stood out among the rest of them. Yes, I will miss you, pal. Until we meet again, wherever they say that is. #riprayliotta”

Taron Egerton: “I stepped on the set of Black Bird in May of last year deeply excited that I would be working with Ray Liotta and even more excited that he would be playing my father….When I first saw our show I text him telling him that I felt his performance was beautiful and that I was very proud of our work. His response was: ‘you made it easy to love my son.’ Ray, the feeling was so, so mutual. I will miss you.”

Jamie Lee Curtis: “Ray Liotta has died. His work as an actor showed his complexity as a human being. A gentle man. So sad to hear.”

Viola Davis: “RIP Ray Liotta!! Loved your work”

Camilla Luddington reflects on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ legacy as show marks 400th episode

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Camilla Luddington may not be one of the original Grey’s Anatomy stars, but she’s a huge part of the series’ history.

The British actress, 38, joined the ABC medical drama back in season 9 as Jo Wilson. More than 200 episodes later, she is part of the cast celebrating the show’s milestone 400th episode — which also happens to be the season 18 finale — airing Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.

As it turns out, things could have been very different for Luddington, who missed her audition in 2012 because she was at San Diego Comic-Con promoting her role as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider video game franchise.

Luckily, it all worked out in the end.

“Ten years later, here I am,” she told Good Morning America on Thursday.

Luddington also spoke about how her character’s storyline of becoming a mom this season mirrored her own life, having welcomed her son, Lucas, in August 2020. She also shares 5-year-old daughter Hayden with husband Matthew Alan.

“They’re like, ‘OK, so you’re going to be really tired this season.’ And I’m like, ‘I got this,'” she said, laughing. “Like, her kid was teething, my kid was teething. This season was easy, the mom thing.”

Luddington said showrunner Krista Vernoff is “very open” to the actors pitching stories for their characters. The actress also revealed one storyline she’s keen to pitch herself: her vision for how Grey’s Anatomy should end.

“Can we be on a beach? I just feel like there have been so many huge disasters. Can we just all survive, like, with a cocktail?” she suggested. “That’s what I want. A cocktail on the beach. That’s what I’ll pitch next.”

Snoop Dogg to DJ the 2022 ‘MTV Movie & TV Awards’

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The MTV Movie & TV Awards will be held in Los Angeles on June 5 and, to help get the party going, Snoop Dogg, aka DJ Snoopadelic, will provide the music for the night.

The network revealed the news Thursday, along with a reminder of Snoop’s DJing duties at last year’s show.

MTV announced the return of the show’s Best Musical Moment social category, as well as the 16 nominees, which include Euphoria‘s “Holding Out For a Hero” and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ “Rose Song.” Voting officially kicks off via MTV’s Instagram Stories on May 30 and will run until June 3. The winner will be revealed live during the ceremony.

Vanessa Hudgens is set to host the main show, starting at 8 p.m. ET, which will be immediately followed by the Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted, hosted by The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams. Top nominees for reality TV-focused show include RuPaul’s Drag Race, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Tha God’s Honest Truth with Charlamagne Tha God.

The Kid LAROI shares his McDonald’s meal in new Australian TV ad

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The Kid LAROI recently teased a signature McDonald’s meal for fans in his home country of Australia, and it’s now available Down Under. While you may not be able to buy it anywhere else — yet — you can at least watch the commercial for it on YouTube.

In an ad that incorporates old-school arcade game graphics, a ball pit, giant French fries and a throne sculpted out of ice, LAROI reveals that his favorite meal is a six-piece Chicken McNuggets with barbecue sauce, a cheeseburger — no pickles, a medium fries and a Frozen Coke.

“That’s my meal, and now you can get it, too,” he adds.

Artists like BTS and Mariah Carey have also teamed with Micky D’s for signature meals. It’s not clear if LAROI plans to bring his meal with him when his End of the World Tour arrives in the U.S. in August. The tour just kicked off in Sydney, Australia.

“To think this entire tour is completely sold out is wild,” he wrote on Instagram Stories. “You’ve all changed my life forever and because of y’all I’m able to live out my dreams in real life. I’m beyond grateful for all of this and maaaan I can’t wait to see you all!”

AWOLNATION announces mental health conversation with collaborator Elohim

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

AWOLNATION is holding a conversation about mental health Thursday night in conjunction with May being National Mental Health Awareness Month.

The virtual event will feature frontman Aaron Bruno speaking with Elohim, one of the many guest artists featured on AWOLANTION’s new covers album, My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers and Me. Elohim contributes to a rendition of the Harvey Danger track “Flagpole Sitta,” aka the “I’m not sick/But I’m not well” song.

“This song directly tackles mental health and it was Elohim’s idea originally,” Bruno says. “She is very knowledgeable and passionate about mental health awareness and advocacy, and she is one of my best friends.”

The mental health organization The Jed Foundation will present the conversation, which you can watch tonight, May 26, at 8 p.m. ET via AWOLNATION and Elohim’s YouTube channels and Instagram page.

AWOLNATION released My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers and Me earlier this month. The band will launch a U.S. headlining tour in October with support from Badflower.

Yes drummer Alan White dead at 72

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Alan White, the drummer for, and longest continuously serving member of, Yes, has died at age 72.

The band announced the news on its official Twitter page and linked back to White’s Facebook page. The page announced, “Alan White, our beloved husband, dad, and grandpa, passed away at the age of 72 at his Seattle-area home on May 26, 2022, after a brief illness.”

“Throughout his life and six-decade career, Alan was many things to many people: a certified rock star to fans around the world; band mate to a select few, and gentleman and friend to all who met him,” the message continues.

A drummer since age 12, White performed with many artists throughout the ’60s, including the jazz-rock fusion supergroup Ginger Baker’s Air Force, which also featured Steve Winwood and Denny Laine. In 1969, John Lennon invited him to join the Plastic Ono Band, and he played on the albums Live Peace In Toronto and Some Time in New York City, as well as the single “Instant Karma.”

White also contributed to Lennon’s Imagine album and to George Harrison‘s All Things Must Pass album, including the single “My Sweet Lord.”

White joined Yes on July 27, 1972, replacing founding drummer Bill Bruford, and learned the band’s repertoire in just three days before they kicked off a tour in Texas. The well-known albums he played on include Yessongs, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Going for the One, Relayer, Drama, 90125 and Big Generator.

White was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Yes in 2017. He is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren.

Miranda Lambert will perform at ABC’s Time100 Gala next month

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Miranda Lambert is among Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2022,” and that’s not all — she’s also performing for a televised gala celebrating the magazine’s 100 honorees.

Miranda is the only country star to be recognized in this year’s Time 100 class, and she’s performing on a bill at the gala that includes Mary J. Blige. Other influential people will make appearances on the special, including rapper/multi-instrumentalist/producer Questlove and Abbott Elementary TV creator Quinta Brunson.

Actor Simu Liu is hosting the gala, which will air on ABC on Sunday, June 12, at 8 p.m. ET. More stars appearing at the event are expected to be announced in the weeks ahead.

Earlier this week, when Miranda was announced as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2022,” she reflected on the distinguished honor.

“I’m so honored to join this year’s class of #TIME100. I only ever wanted to sing and write songs and thanks to y’all I’ve gotten to do that and so much more,” Miranda said. “Thank y’all for being on this journey with me.”

Jennifer Aniston, Pink and Billie Eilish are Ellen DeGeneres’ final guests on last episode of talk show

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

After 19 years in syndication, Ellen DeGeneres wrapped up her talk show for good on Thursday. Along with Jennifer Aniston, she was joined by two music superstars as her final guests: Pink and Billie Eilish.

Aniston was Ellen’s very first guest on her very first episode, so it was fitting that she appeared on this final show. After Aniston’s appearance came Billie, who first appeared on the show in 2018, when she was just 16. She told Ellen, “You started this show the year after I was born. This was in my house constantly. Every day. I would walk into the kitchen and my mom would be watching you.”

Ellen’s great friend Pink was the final guest and musical performer. In addition to singing “What About Us,” she also gifted Ellen with some things that will help her fill all the free time she’ll suddenly have on her hands: a homemade sourdough starter; knitting needles and yarn; and binoculars for bird-watching.

Pink, who first appeared on the show in 2003, told Ellen, “I wanted to be a singer because I wanted to grow up and change the world and make it a better place. You’ve done that in so many ways. Maybe I help people find their pain. You help people find their joy.”

Ellen concluded the show by saying, “Thank you so much for being on this journey with me. I feel the love and I send it back to you. Bye.”

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