NEWS OF THE DAY
High-speed chase: Police say an 11-year-old boy in Ohio led officers on his second highspeed police chase in 13 months, this time after his mother took away a video game console. Police in suburban Cleveland say the boy took off in his mother’s SUV around 10:30 p.m. Sunday after she went to bed. Police reports say officers began chasing the boy as he sped down a road the wrong way, running stop lights and reaching speeds of 70 to 90 mph. The chase ended about 30 minutes later when the boy crashed into a parked truck. He was treated for minor injuries and taken to a juvenile detention center. Authorities say he led police and the State Highway Patrol on a 100-mph chase last fall.
Conspiracy charges: Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson refused to dismiss charges against three Chicago police officers accused of participating in a cover-up surrounding the fatal police shooting of a black teenager. Prosecutors allege Thomas Gaffney, former Detective David March and ex-Officer Joseph Walsh falsely claimed in their reports that McDonald had battered, assaulted and attacked white police officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times in 2014. They have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice. A jury last month convicted Van Dyke of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery.
Hit-and-run: Vehicular homicide charges were filed Tuesday against a 21-year-old man accused of inhaling chemical vapors before he crashed his truck into a group of Girl Scouts picking up trash along a highway in Lake Hallie, Wis., killing three children and one adult, prosecutors said Tuesday. The 11 charges filed against Colten Treu include four counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of a hit-and-run resulting in death. The punishment for those charges alone is up to 160 years in prison.
Restaurant sued: A man who fell onto Metro train tracks in the nation’s capital is suing a restaurant that he says served him too much alcohol. News outlets report Patrick Augusma is suing Maggiano’s Little Italy for negligence. He says it’s the eatery’s fault that he suffered facial fractures and head trauma when he fell last year. The $2 million lawsuit filed last week says Maggiano’s served Augusma drinks even though he “visibly appeared to be intoxicated.”
Toy firearms: City officials in Sioux City, Iowa have voted to bar people from carrying “toy” firearms, which police say are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from actual guns. The city code revision doesn’t ban carrying Nerf, suction-cup dart or squirt guns. Police Capt. Mark Kirkpatrick said officers have had multiple encounters with replica weapons and faced the question of whether to use deadly force. People carrying toy firearms tend to be teenagers or young adults seeking personal protection or street credibility, he said.
Chronicle News Services