MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING 4 AFTER FATHER WAS SLAIN

A 19- year- old man charged in the fatal shooting of four people at a Chicago fast food restaurant last week may have been seeking to avenge his father’s murder, police said Wednesday.

Police took Maurice Harris into custody Tuesday and charged him in the fatal shooting that authorities believe was a gang- related attack. The four killings were among eight homicides that occurred between late Wednesday and Thursday night in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.

Police allege Harris carried out the attack the day after his father, Jerry Jacobs, was gunned down as he walked in the neighborhood. Jacobs was a documented gang member, and Harris had an extensive rap sheet as a juvenile.

ALSO ...

Police in southern Russia on Thursday hunted down and killed four suspects following the killing of two police officers. The Investigative Committee said the National Guard in the city of Astrakhan found the suspects, who refused to surrender and fired back at officers. In the ensuing gunbattle early Thursday, all four gunmen were killed and three National Guard officers were wounded.

U. S.- backed Syrian fighters have laid siege to the northern Syrian town of Tabqa, an Islamic State stronghold, two weeks after U. S. aircraft ferried forces behind militant lines to spearhead a major assault near the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces captured the Safsafeh area late Wednesday, completing the encirclement of the town, spokeswoman Cihan Sheikh Ehmed said Thursday. The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the conflict, confirmed the account.