4 injured in Lower Wacker crash

Four people were injured in a singlevehicle crash Saturday evening on Lower Wacker Drive in the Loop.

The driver of a four-door pickup truck crashed shortly before 4:47 p.m. at 44 E. Wacker Dr. at the curve, according to Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Curtis Hudson. No other vehicles were involved. Four occupants were freed from the truck by 5:25 p.m. and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in “red” but stable condition, Hudson said.

Two men have been charged with beating and robbing an active-duty U.S. Army member at a River North CTA Red Line stop on Friday.

Vernon Reeves and Jimmy Williams, both 18, face felony counts of aggravated battery and robbery.

The 31-year-old soldier was getting off a train when he paused to let a woman exit before him, angering a group that was behind him about 1:50 p.m. at the Chicago station in the 800 block of North State Street, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Brady said at the men’s bail hearing on Saturday. The group began arguing with the man and followed him toward the exit where they attacked him, knocked him to the ground and beat him as he was headed up the stairs, Brady said.

The man suffered bruising and was treated at the scene, according to prosecutors and police. Reeves and Jimmy Williams were arrested at the scene. Two juveniles were also arrested while leaving the station.

A judge set bail at $50,000 for Williams and $100,000 for Reeves.

Man stabs elderly couple’s dog outside Target store in Evanston: police

A man stabbed an elderly couple’s pet dog in a bizarre attack outside a Target store in downtown Evanston on Friday afternoon.

At 12:10 p.m., the couple were standing outside the store at 1616 Sherman Ave. in the north suburb when the man walked up and asked to pet their dog, according to Evanston Police Dept. Cmdr. Ryan Glew.

The man then stabbed the dog and ran away, Glew said. The dog was taken to an animal hospital, and its condition was unknown, Glew said.

In a Friday night Facebook post, a woman identifying herself as the couple’s daughter said the dog was “out of surgery and stable,” calling the attacker “clearly mentally unstable.”