A minivan driver has been charged with a DUI after killing pedestrian Patsy Ely, 62, on Monday afternoon, January 4, in Logan Square. Ely was the first person to be fatally struck on foot in Chicago this year.
According to police, at about 4:50 p.m. Ely was walking in the 3900 block of West Fullerton Avenue. As she was near a crosswalk, the 41-year-old female driver of a white Dodge Caravan fatally struck her. The Chicago Tribune reported that a police spokesperson said the crash report did not specify whether Ely was on the sidewalk or crossing the street when she was hit.
After former Blackstone Bicycle Works student and Divvy bike-share mechanic Jermell “Mello” Akins, 25, was shot and critically wounded last month, Chicagoans, including bike community members, have stepped up to raise more than $50,000 to help cover his expenses.
On Monday, November 30, at about 7 p.m., police officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 1000 block of E. 62nd St. in Woodlawn, a few blocks west of Blackstone Bikes, according to Police News Affairs. They found Akins on the front lawn of a residence with a gunshot wound to the neck and the stomach. He was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition. No one was in custody as of yesterday, and detectives are investigating the case.