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A 23-year-old man who turned himself in this week after police issued an alert on a series of attacks on the Southwest Side was charged this morning with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, police said.

Chauvet Stiggers, of the 12600 block of South Wallace Street, is suspected in at least three incidents last week in the area bounded by 79th and 83rd Streets, Maplewood Street and Pulaski Road. Stiggers walked into the Wentworth Area police headquarters Wednesday with a lawyer, police said.

Stiggers was named as a suspect in connection with sexual attacks that took place between March 4 and Sunday.

According to police, a man matching his description sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl in the 8200 block of South Sacramento Boulevard about 7:15 p.m. March 4 after he forced her into a green minivan.

The following day at 8:30 a.m. a man forced a 16-year-old girl into a green minivan at gunpoint in the 7900 block of South Maplewood and sexually assaulted her, police said.

On March 7 a man in a green minivan exposed himself to an 18-year-old woman near the 7900 block of South Pulaski Road.

Police said Stiggers had been seen driving a green Chrysler minivan.

He is scheduled to appear in court this morning.

-- Staff report

Throughout his life, Bill Burtner had managed to dodge numerous bullets -- both literally and figuratively.

He survived two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded in combat. Next came a bout of lung cancer, followed by a long siege of chemotherapy.

But it was neither the military nor a malady that ultimately claimed the 65-year-old custodian's life in November. Burtner was mugged at a south suburban bank, depositing proceeds from a fundraiser for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2580 in Midlothian. Two days later, he died of his injuries.

Burtner's friends and family hope to pick up where he left off: supporting and honoring those who serve their country. A benefit organized in his memory is scheduled Saturday to send area World War II veterans to their memorial in Washington.

Bill and Mary Burtner in a 2008 photo taken in Oak Forest, in front of the traveling Vietnam Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Mary Burtner)

"I had to stay away from the post for a while," said his widow, Mary Burtner. "I just expected him to walk in the door at any moment."

The Mount Greenwood resident had been a daily presence at the brick building for about 25 years, most recently as commander. It's the kind of place where Friday night fish fries are still a big draw and no one would ever dream of ordering a "microbrew." There's a collection box of assorted items -- combs, razors, deodorant -- that Burtner would regularly send to a new generation of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Bill was the only person I've ever known who'd give you everything he had and expect nothing in return," said Debbie Halloran, manager of the VFW hall.

So it was just business as usual for Bill Burtner to be at the nearby A.J. Smith Federal Savings Bank on Nov. 16, depositing $5,500 in cash to help others. That's when witnesses saw someone strike Burtner, grab the deposit bags and run to a waiting car.

Jerry Brown, 28, of Calumet City, was apprehended after a chase by police. Stevie Smith, 25, of Chicago, managed to remain at large until last month. Some of the cash was recovered.

Both defendants face murder, robbery and aggravated battery charges. Brown has pleaded guilty while Smith will be arraigned next week, said Andy Conklin of the Cook County state's attorney's office.

"It doesn't help with the loneliness, but I felt a lot of relief when he was caught," said Mary Burtner.

The couple had been together for 28 years, and she thought her husband would bounce back this time, as he had so many times before -- after shrapnel injuries in Vietnam and after cancer surgery in 2006 that removed half of his right lung.

Bill Burtner died Nov. 18 of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and fractured ribs.

"It was just so stupid," said Steven Schaefer, a Des Plaines resident and fellow Vietnam veteran.

Schaefer spearheaded Saturday's fundraiser at Papa T's Bar & Grill, 4660 147th St., Midlothian. Tickets are $20, which includes food and beverage.

"This is exactly what Bill would have wanted," Halloran said. "But still, you can't help but ask yourself: How could something so bad happen to someone so good?"

--Bonnie Miller Rubin

PEKIN, Ill. -- Tazewell County authorities said an attempted murder suspect triggered a nationwide alert when he allegedly cut off an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Aaron "Garth" Baecker, 63, of Pekin was indicted Jan. 25 in the attempted first-degree murder of his wife and on aggravated domestic battery charges.

On Feb. 3, Baecker was released from the Tazewell County Justice Center on $250,000 bond, with the requirement that he wear the monitoring bracelet.

Sgt. John Horan of the Tazewell County Probation Department said Baecker cut off the device late Thursday afternoon.

Horan said authorities located the device a short time later, and went to Baecker's wife's residence to move her to a safe location.

--The Associated Press

The Daily Herald reports: A fire that broke out in the attached garage of a home in Hoffman Estates Thursday night left four pets dead and caused what officials estimate at more than $300,000 in damage.

Get the full story: dailyherald.com.

When mice invaded Allison Gist's apartment, she moved to 3034 S. 48th Court in Cicero so her children and baby grandchildren would be safe and more comfortable.

She remembers the friendly maintenance worker showing her the apartment three years ago, pointing out the spacious attic that he said a previous tenant used as a nursery.

That same handyman, Marion Comier, 47, is accused of setting the building on fire around 6:30 a.m. Feb. 14, killing seven people. Gist's two daughters, a son and two grandsons, the youngest just 3 days old, were among those killed.

The victims were trapped in the attic, the only stairwell blocked by flames.

"He knew they'd be up there, asleep," Gist said today in a small voice, looking at the ground.

Family members, friends and survivors, including Alison Gist (left) who lost several family members in the fatal Valentine's Day fire in Cicero, gather at Alessandro's restaurant Thursday. (Tribune / Antonio Perez)

She and roughly a dozen other survivors of the fire met Thursday at a lunch sponsored for them by the One Voice, One Love Foundation and Judah Travelers Ministry.

Some of the survivors wept as they remembered friends and relatives killed in the blaze, and they shared how they struggle to comprehend how the fire could have been intentionally set.

Prosecutors say Comier torched the apartment building at the request of landlord Lawrence Myers, 60, who is accused of trying to collect $250,000 in insurance money. Myers and Comier each are charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson and are being held without bail.

Cicero officials this week obtained a court order allowing them to immediately inspect two other buildings owned and managed by Myers and Comier. The town plans to check on living conditions and general safety there.

Officials on Thursday also released property and maintenance records to the Tribune that show that the building where the fire took place was riddled with code violations and health and safety concerns for many years, most of them occurring in the last five years. Officials had referred to the violations in the days right after the fire.

The documents describe problems that included rodent holes in the foundation, damaged exterior stairs breaking away from the building, overflowing garbage and general aesthetic complaints. The town's building department had scheduled at least 18 inspections or reinspections of the property since 2005, though it's unclear if all of them were carried out.

The town would not release all documents related to the building, citing an ongoing investigation of the fire. Cicero officials had said the property was inspected for overcrowding but no evidence was ever found.

Killed in the fire were Gist's daughter Sallie, 19; her daughter's boyfriend, Byron Reed, 20; and their sons Rashon, 3, and Brian, 3 days old. Also killed were Allison Gist's 16-year-old twins Elijah and Elisha and family friend Tiera Davidson, 18.

The fire displaced about 20 people, many still living in hotels or with family members.

Gist said she and her surviving family members are living in a hotel, and she has trouble sleeping and often awakens with fears of being burned in her sleep.

She once considered Comier a friend. He was kind, she said. He let her pay rent mid-month once and even loaned her money on another occasion.

"You never know," she said. "It's weird that you can't ever trust anyone anymore."

--Angie Leventis Lourgos

Mark Townsend joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1988 hoping to help pave the way for future black firefighters in an agency long plagued by charges of racism.

But as Townsend nears retirement, he faces a troubling fact: Despite years of diversity training and a highly publicized minority recruitment campaign, the percentage of African-Americans in the department is shrinking.

Chicago ranks third from the bottom -- in front of only New York City and Baltimore -- when it comes to how closely its percentage of black firefighters matches the city's racial makeup, according to a Tribune analysis of 10 of the largest fire departments.

Captain Mark Townsend at the Engine 82 Firehouse on the South Side, Monday, March 8. (Tribune / Alex Garcia)

"We are definitely moving backward," said Townsend, a captain and 22-year veteran. "It's very disappointing, and it also makes you angry."

The racial makeup of the department is in the spotlight as the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming months is expected to rule on a potential $100 million civil rights case stemming from allegations of racial bias against black applicants in the department's 1995 entry-level exam.

Since that test, the percentage of African-Americans in the department has slipped from 22 percent to 18 percent, though blacks represent about 34 percent of the city's population.

Townsend and others worry it is only going to get worse. Hundreds of black firefighters hired in the 1980s become eligible for retirement in the coming months, so they expect to see their numbers plummet. The department is gearing up for a hiring spree in anticipation of that, but the list it's pulling from is only 21 percent African-American.

Meanwhile, the newest class of 160 recruits, set to graduate at the end of March, is 66 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic and 13 percent black, according to the department.

"The numbers coming in just can't keep up with those that will be going out," said Fire Department Engineer Gregory Boggs, president of the African American Firefighter's & Paramedic's League of Chicago.

The current decline, coupled with the possibility the percentage of black firefighters could soon drop to a 20-year low, raises questions about why efforts to recruit African-Americans seem to have had little impact.

Fire Department officials stressed it will take time to achieve greater diversity in a large agency with little turnover.

"The mathematical reality is that change requires more bodies (than in smaller departments)," said spokesman Larry Langford, who acknowledged the agency "is not there yet" in terms of minority representation.

But black firefighters point to the infrequency of entrance exams and targeted recruitment campaigns as a major obstacle to building meaningful relationships with a community that has historically felt unwelcome by the agency.

Under state guidelines, all paid municipal fire departments must give new tests about every three years. Chicago is exempt from those rules.

The city's most recent entrance exams were in 1985, 1995 and 2006. Those who passed the 2006 exam were randomly assigned a number between one and about 17,000. The department pulls from this list, but potential recruits can wait years before their numbers are called.

Philip Cowley, who works as a registered nurse in Chicago, said he found out about the 2006 exam days after it was held.

"I really want to become a firefighter, but it's not practical for me to wait until 2016 just to apply," said Cowley, who is African-American and decided to apply to the Homewood Fire Department instead.

Langford said there is no single factor behind the city's decision to hold exams every 10 years.

"I am sure economics (has) had something to do with it, and the availability (of applicants) -- we still had a lot of people on the lists," Langford said. The department's current goal is to hold tests every three to five years, he said.

Most fire departments refresh their lists with exams every one or two years, said Larry Sagen, executive director of Fire 20\20, a national group that analyzes and supports diversity recruitment and retention.

"If you have a list and it is just sitting there for 10 years, you are not getting new and current people," Sagen said. "It definitely impacts your ability to have that connection with diverse and multicultural communities."

A minority recruitment blitz preceded Chicago's 2006 test, including outreach to majority black schools, churches and businesses and advertising. In the end, blacks made up about 25 percent of those who applied.

Department officials acknowledged they had hoped for a better turnout. In 1995, blacks represented 36 percent of those who took the exam. But Adrianne Bryant, an assistant commissioner who headed the 2006 diversity outreach campaign, said numbers were down overall. Bryant pointed to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina as possible influencing factors.

"Many people saw what first responders really had to go through," she said.

But black firefighters say the brevity of the campaign was not enough to overcome a perceived culture of bigotry in the department.

"A lot of black kids don't know this is something they can aspire to," said Boggs. "Their grandfathers and fathers didn't do this, so they have a harder time knowing where to begin."

Over the years, black firefighters have reported harassment, such as finding nooses hanging in their firehouses. An infamous videotape of a 1990 retirement party, which became public in 1997, depicted white firefighters drinking, exposing themselves and using racial slurs. In 2004, a firefighter on an all-white truck made racist comments over an open microphone.

Gillespie Taylor, 24, an accounting student at DeVry University, said that growing up in Rogers Park, he rarely saw black firefighters but still heard stories of conflict in the department.

"It follows that we're not welcome ... it is not something that we should pursue," said Taylor. "(The Fire Department) did not project that this could be a (career) option as a young African-American."

Tom Ryan, president of the firefighters union, declined to comment on the department's diversity.

"We have nothing to do with hiring," Ryan said. "There are no problems that I know of (with race in the department)."

Although many firefighters say race relations have improved, particularly among the younger generation, they say some firehouses are still uncomfortable places filled with off-color jokes and racially loaded pranks.

Lt. Rocky Morris said he often felt ostracized in 2008 while working as an African-American firefighter in an all-white firehouse on the West Side, where he said colleagues would tape pink transfer slips to his locker.

"It was a hostile work environment," said Morris, a 24-year veteran.

Lt. Silvery Mitchell, a 23-year veteran who is black, said that when she did recruiting for the 2006 exam, she still encountered worries from potential black recruits.

"There were questions like: Did they ever do anything to you? Or, did they ever leave you at a fire or ever play tricks on you or call you names or not eat with you?" said Mitchell.

Many minorities who came to fire departments nationally from the '70s through the '90s, often under court orders, found themselves in hostile environments and spread the word in their communities, Sagen said. That remains an obstacle in recruiting the next generation.

Fire Department officials denied that the agency's history had anything do to with current underrepresentation of African-Americans. Langford said that, simply put, some people just don't want to become firefighters.

"It's a reality of life that if you get several thousand people together, they are not all going to be sensitive to everyone's background or makeup," said Langford. "(But) I don't think that anything has occurred in the Chicago Fire Department that is so far out of the ordinary it would cause any group to feel unwelcome."

Langford also said that over the last several years minority representation in the command ranks has improved. "That is a signal to young blacks and Hispanics that you can succeed in the Fire Department," he said.

Experts say there is no magic formula for diversity, but some of the most successful departments use aggressive advertising for regular exams, hire part- and full-time recruiters, mentor applicants and offer cadet programs, among other steps. Chicago uses its fire safety program at thousands of events every year to promote careers in the agency. The agency offers a cadet program with police through city schools.

But the department's Bryant said that without an actual test, recruitment is limited. "The challenge with doing it full throttle is if there is no place for people to channel their energy -- if there is no exam to take, where do we send them," she said.

The department would like to hold another exam before 2012, Bryant said.

But Townsend and other firefighters are skeptical that will actually happen.

On a recent winter day, as Townsend and his team were shoveling out fire hydrants on the South Side, a young black man walked up and asked him about becoming a firefighter. Townsend told him that he didn't know when the next exam would be and suggested the man approach suburban departments or pursue his paramedic's license instead.

"It was disheartening," Townsend said. "He took out a pen and paper and wrote down the information. Then we drove off, and he was just standing there."

--Cynthia Dizikes

A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie's burger restaurants were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada.

The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son.

The Blackie's operators are accused of writing bad checks from their accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme. Longtime Blackie's operator Nick Giannis gave Giannoulias more than $114,000 in campaign contributions for his treasurer and Senate campaigns.

Giannoulias was in a state of "shock and disbelief" at the news, according to his campaign, which announced he would donate an equivalent amount to local charities.

Cook County state's attorney Anita Alvarez holds a press conference at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse today to announce check-kiting charges against Chris Giannis and Nick Giannis, the owners of the Boston Blackie's restaurant chain. A manager, Andy Bakopoulos, also was charged. (Terrence Antonio James/Tribune)

Nick Giannis was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Detroit while attempting to enter Canada after he failed to surrender to authorities and investigators sent out a nationwide alert.

Prosecutors said the men participated in a so-called check-kiting scheme in which they wrote checks from bank accounts that didn't have enough money and deposited those checks at Charter One and Washington Mutual. They then withdrew money from their Charter One and Washington Mutual accounts before the checks actually cleared, or in some cases stopped payments on the checks.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez did not identify a motive for the alleged scheme. But a law enforcement source said the Giannis family had overextended itself and was trying to stave off creditors on bills owed related to the business and some expansions or new ventures they had planned.

Chris Giannis' attorney, former Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine, said his client was "caught up in a tough business situation, and he did the best he could under difficult circumstances." Giannis was allowed to take out more money than what was in the Charter One bank account, according to Devine, who said such overdraft protection is commonly extended to restaurant owners because of the unpredictable nature of their business.

In a proffer filed by prosecutors, Bakopoulos admitted stopping payment on checks he had just deposited and acknowledged he knew that was wrong. But he said he was told to do it by Chris Giannis and needed the job.

The Boston Blackie's chain, which expanded from a single restaurant in the River East neighborhood in the 1980s to eight outlets in the city and suburbs, has struggled financially. The company filed for bankruptcy late last year.

The restaurants have remained open during the bankruptcy proceedings, and Thursday's charges were not expected to have any immediate impact, according to an attorney representing the Boston Blackie's management company.

Broadway Bank is listed in the bankruptcy case as an unsecured creditor, owed $1.6 million for a commercial loan to the Boston Blackie's restaurant in Lincoln Park.

Broadway Bank was not a victim of the scheme nor was it accused of any wrongdoing, prosecutors said.

But the case brought unwanted attention to a political soft spot for Giannoulias. He has faced tough questions about loans Broadway Bank made to people with criminal backgrounds while he was the senior loan officer and what role he played in financial decisions that have left the bank on the brink of insolvency.

The charges came on a day when Giannoulias was trying to change the conversation, holding a news conference at a small business in the West Loop to promote his jobs plan and slam his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, about his votes that favored "Wall Street and special interests." Instead, by the end of the day, Kirk was firing back, saying Broadway's mention in the Boston Blackie's case represented a "disturbing pattern."

In a 2006 interview with the Tribune, Nick Giannis said he has known the Giannoulias family for years and was a friend of Giannoulias' father, Alexis, who oversaw the loans to Giannis. He said he was not donating to Giannoulias' campaign to win favor with Broadway.

"I am doing it because the kid is an honorable, hard-working guy," Giannis said. "This has nothing to do with the bank or any loans. It's just a personal thing."

All three men were in custody Thursday night.

Annie Sweeney contributed to this report.

--Matthew Walberg, John Chase and David Jackson

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

A male victim was shot in the leg tonight while in a vehicle on Interstate Highway 57 near southwest suburban Oak Forest, according to Illinois State Police.

The victim was shot by a female in the vehicle, in what appeared to be a possibly domestic-related incident, state police said.

State police responded to a call of the shooting shortly before 9 p.m. in the southbound lanes of I-57 at 167th Street.

The victim, whose condition was unavailable, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The female shooter was taken to the Oak Forest police station for questioning.

Ages for the two were not available.

--Staff report

A federal judge today ordered ex-East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick and two former aides to pay $108 million in civil damages in an alleged sidewalks-for-votes scheme.

Pastrick was never charged criminally, though other members of the so-called Sidewalk Six were sentenced to prison. A phone rang unanswered at the office of Patrick's attorney, Michael Bosch, when The Associated Press called seeking comment.

The federal racketeering suit filed by the state in 2004 alleged Pastrick and others ran the city as a "corrupt enterprise" and spent $24 million in public money on private driveways, patios and walkways to court voters in the 1999 Democratic primary.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller said U.S. District Judge James Moody's decision marked the first time a city government had been adjudged a corrupt organization under federal racketeering laws.

"I am enormously pleased that the federal judge awarded triple damages against former Mayor Pastrick and the other remaining defendants as a symbol of how brazen and shameless the public corruption was in the municipal government of East Chicago during the Pastrick regime," said Zoeller.

The triple damages were assessed against Pastrick, former aide James Fife III and former City Council President Frank Kollintzas. The damages were calculated based not only on the money allegedly spent to buy votes, but other costs associated with public corruption, including a bond issue that became necessary after the city's general fund was depleted.

When Pastrick left office the city had a deficit of $17 million, the order said.

Pastrick, the city's mayor for 32 years, left office after the Indiana Supreme Court in 2004 found Pastrick's campaign was tainted with corruption and ordered a rerun of the 2003 Democratic primary.

Pastrick and Fife agreed to accept judgment by default, the order said. Phone numbers listed under Fife's name in northwest Indiana were disconnected.

Kollintzas fled the country in 2005 before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in the scheme.

Other co-defendants settled with the state.

--The Associated Press

Testimony in the federal corruption trial of a Chicago developer today revealed that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez met with the developer and Mayor Richard Daley to push for the city's approval of a controversial real estate venture.

Gutierrez's involvement in lobbying Daley to support the project goes a step beyond what the congressman has previously told the Tribune in stories documenting his political and financial relationship with the developer, Calvin Boender, and his unusual role in backing a project outside his congressional district.

The Tribune previously has reported that Gutierrez wrote a letter to Daley on Boender's behalf after receiving a $200,000 loan from Boender. The newspaper reported Sunday that relatives of Gutierrez and two other Chicago politicians who supported Boender landed jobs tied to the project known as Galewood Yards.

Gutierrez, a friend and golfing partner of Boender's, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Boender is on trial in federal court on charges he bribed former 29th Ward Ald. Isaac "Ike" Carothers as a reward for Carothers' supporting the West Side project and helping change its zoning from manufacturing use to residential and commercial.

Denise Casalino, a former city planning commissioner, testified Thursday that she was in a meeting with Gutierrez, Boender and Daley in the winter of 2004-05 at which Boender brought a model of his 50-acre project. Gutierrez's letter on U.S. House stationery was sent earlier the same year and was obtained by the FBI during its investigation of the Boender case, the Tribune has reported.

Casalino did not testify about what Gutierrez said but indicated Daley had a brief response. "He said, 'Thank you.' That was about it," Casalino said.

Gutierrez's office did not respond to requests Thursday for comment. Corporation Counsel Mara Georges issued a statement on Daley's behalf calling the meeting routine.

"During the course of a year, the mayor meets with thousands of people in brief meetings," the statement read. "According to the mayor's schedule, this was one of those meetings that occurred over five years ago. The mayor's scheduling office located this information and provided it to the U.S. attorney's office."

In 2008 the Tribune chronicled how Boender overrode the opposition of city planners to Galewood Yards after enlisting the support of Carothers and Gutierrez, D-Ill. Boender and his associates had donated about $55,000 to Carothers' re-election campaigns and $41,000 to Gutierrez's.

Gutierrez told the Tribune at the time there was no connection between the $200,000 loan and his lobbying of Daley. The congressman had sought to downplay his role in supporting Boender's project, saying at the time that his involvement was "extremely minimal" and "entirely appropriate."

Gutierrez, who is up for re-election this year, has a sister-in-law who had sold real estate for the project.

Meanwhile, another former planning official testified Thursday that Boender berated her in a 2004 telephone conversation when she raised the possibility of including his site for residential and commercial development in a planned manufacturing district.

Nancy Kiernan, a former manager in the planning and development office, said Boender reacted angrily, telling her he had "a deal" with the alderman of that ward and didn't need to listen to her.

"He said that he didn't know who I was, and he didn't need to know who I was," Kiernan testified of the call with Boender. "He didn't need to deal with me because he had a deal with the alderman. He said no one was going to tell him how to develop his property."

Kiernan said Carothers also rebuffed her when she tried to talk to him about the project at a City Council meeting.

"He said he didn't need to talk and he didn't want me to talk to anybody," she said. "He was going to do what he wanted to do with the land in his ward."

Kiernan also testified that Daley was briefed on the development and that he appeared to back her position to designate the site for a planned manufacturing district. She recalled explaining the plans and Daley responding, "PMD'em."

Lawyers for Boender have subpoenaed the mayor to testify, but U.S. District Judge Robert Dow has not decided whether to allow it.

It also remained unclear whether prosecutors would call Carothers as a witness. He pleaded guilty last month and agreed to continue to cooperate with the government. He had earlier worked undercover, wearing a wire on targets.

--Jeff Coen and Todd Lighty

A man was shot in the head while inside a vehicle this evening in the Southwest Side's Ashburn neighborhood, Chicago police said.

Police could not described the severity of the man's injuries, but said he was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was shot about 7:20 p.m. in the 8000 block of South Sawyer Avenue, said Officer Hector Alfaro, a Chicago police spokesman.

No one was in custody.

--Staff report

The children were taken to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates. The girl was treated and released. Her brother remained in critical condition this morning, and the 16-year-old was upgraded to good condition.

Both boys got out of surgery about  6:30 a.m. today, according to the mother of the 12-year-old and the girl. Her son, she said, "is doing better and is more stable."

The girl said police have told her the shooting may be gang-related because her brother was wearing a red shirt, black pants and red-and-black Air Jordan sneakers, which police said may have made him a gang target.

Police said in a release today that whoever fired the shots may have gang affiliations, but they do not know whether any of the three children were intended targets.

Detectives learned the victims attended a soccer game at a Schaumburg school not long before the shooting, police said. After the game, police said, the victims, while outside their Hoffman Estates apartment complex, encountered a person on a bicycle "with whom they exchanged words."

It's unclear if the soccer game or the encounter with the person on the bike had anything to do with the shooting. No one was in custody as of Thursday night.

While there are gangs in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, the girl insisted none of them are connected to gangs. "I feel it's dangerous because other people can get shot who aren't in gangs," she said.

Speaking slowly and in a soft voice, the girl said it had been a sleepless night.

"It kinda hurt here," she said, lifting up her shirt to show the bandage over her wound. "I couldn't really move or sleep. I'm very tired."

She expressed relief that everyone survived and was hopeful she'd get to see her brother and friend later today at the hospital.

After the shooting, the 16-year-old called his family from the store but no one heard the phone because there was a birthday party for his sister who had just turned 11, according to a family friend.

The 16-year-old then called a friend who knocked on their door and told them, "Miguel has been shot." The family rushed across street to the scene of the shooting.

The teen's family has lived at the complex for about five years, and the friend said she is not aware of any connections to gangs. "He's agreeable and calm," she said, and plays soccer in his spare time.

The girl and her brother also live in the apartment complex across the street from the 7-Eleven. The girl and the 16-year-old attend Schaumburg High School, according to an announcement this morning by the school's principal.

"All of them are good kids," said Wansaslao Elias, who's the maintenance man in the apartment complex. "They don't have any problems with anything and aren't affiliated with gangs."

Elias said he considers the 16-year-old a friend. He recently offered the boy a job helping pick up trash, at $10 an hour.

"He goes to school, comes home, doesn't do much else," Elias said. "Neither he nor the others dress in gang colors."

Schaumburg Township High School District 211 spokesman Tom Petersen said the high school added a police officer for extra security as a precaution this morning. Principal Tom Little made an announcement about the shooting this morning over the public address system, Petersen said.

"I want you to know that there is no threat to the school, and our school community is safe and secure at this time," the principal said, according to a statement posted on the school's Web site.

Little encouraged anyone who might know something about the shooting to come forward and speak to school officials.

"Right now, it's really a police matter," Petersen said. "We're going to do everything we can to assistant in that matter, but our focus is on making certain that our students are safe."

Police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call the Schaumburg Police Department at 847-882-3534.
 
-- Carlos Sadovi, Stacey Wescott, Liam Ford, Dan Simmons

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

A convicted sex offender charged with murdering one California teenager -- who formerly lived in Naperville -- and under investigation for another killing violated his parole by moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Had John Albert Gardner III been returned to prison in 2007 he would have been evaluated for commitment to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent predator. He also would have qualified for wearing an electronic tracking device for the rest of his life.

"It was just an incompetent decision that didn't protect public safety," said state Sen. George Runner, who wrote Jessica's Law, the sex offender law approved by voters in 2006. "And now we have, what, two victims and who knows what else is out there?"

The parole records show state officials found Gardner illegally living within a half-mile of a school in September 2007 and decided to keep him on parole. The records show at least five later violations, the last on Sept. 8, 2008, just 18 days before Gardner was let go from parole supervision and his location-tracking GPS bracelet removed from his ankle.

Each time, the decision was "COP:" Continue on Parole.

Gardner would absolutely have been evaluated for commitment as a possible sexually violent predator had he been sent back to prison, said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health.

"All the indications were there saying that this was a very serious situation," she said. "A very serious evaluation would have been followed all the way through."

Gardner's attorney, Michael John Popkins, did not return a telephone message seeking comment. He is under a court-ordered gag order not to talk about the case.

Gardner, 30, served five years in prison and three years of parole after pleading guilty in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

He pleaded not guilty last week to murdering Chelsea King, 17, whose presumed body was found March 2 buried in a park near her hometown of Poway north of San Diego.

King, who was born in suburban San Diego, lived in the Chicago suburb of Naperville with her family for 10 years before the family returned to California. She attended Waubonsie Valley High School in 2006-07.

Gardner is also charged with assaulting a woman in the same park in December, and is a suspect but has not been charged in the disappearance of 14-year-old Amber Dubois as she walked to school in Escondido in early 2009.

Her skeletal remains were found Saturday on an Indian reservation.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a statement saying it was working to determine if the actions taken regarding Gardner's parole were consistent with policy and law.

"There was nothing to indicate then that he would do this, or allegedly do this," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the department. "I guess one can always look back, but we don't have the luxury."

In fact, Gardner was considered to be a low- or moderate-risk sex offender, based on the assessment in use at the time, Hidalgo said.

He wasn't sent back to prison in September 2007 because he corrected the residency violation by moving away from a college campus that had a day care center, Hidalgo said.

He had six other technical violations -- one more than shown in the records obtained by the AP, Hidalgo said.

Four involved letting the battery on his ankle bracelet run low, one for missing a meeting with his parole officer, and one for alleged marijuana possession that couldn't be substantiated.

"These are considered minor. Quite frankly if we were to blanket the system of parolees with minor offenses, we would ... overwhelm the system. We'd close the system down," Hidalgo said.

Runner and former state Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who chaired a corrections oversight committee, said the department made a practice of not sending violators back to prison in an effort to ease crowding.

"This is proof they jeopardized public safety," said Spitzer, now an assistant Orange County district attorney. "They were simply rejecting what they considered a technical violation to reduce overcrowding."

Laura Ahearn, executive director of New York-based Parents for Megan's Law and The Crime Victims Center, said parole agents missed a chance to possibly put Gardner away for years.

"A technical violation is an opportunity to take sexual predators off the street. Most would be looking for that opportunity," she said. "He could have been confined, and this may never have happened."

During his parole, Gardner was required to undergo drug testing, abstain from alcohol and have no contact with anyone under age 18. He also was prohibited from possessing pornography, children's games, toys or pets.

While in prison, Gardner had six minor rules violations for problems such as smoking and being late for class. He was placed in segregation and later transferred to another prison in 2004 "after he experienced verbal and physical confrontations from other inmates," the department said.

If officials ruled that Gardner violated his parole, they could have sent him back to prison, though most serve only about four extra months behind bars. However, the new prison term would have extended his parole supervision.

The violation also would have put Gardner under the jurisdiction of Jessica's Law and permitted lifetime electronic monitoring. In addition, it would have permitted Gardner's evaluation as a sexually violent predator, potentially keeping him locked up in a state mental health hospital for years.

Gardner couldn't be committed to a state mental hospital after the 2000 case because the law then required at least two victims. Jessica's Law now allows evaluations after just one.

Kincaid, the mental health spokeswoman, said Gardner might have been committed for having an underlying mental disorder and a likelihood that he would reoffend. However, the law involving commitment generally requires that the victim be a stranger. In this case, his victim was a neighbor who had known and trusted him for a year.

Gardner's 2000 probation report included comments from a psychiatrist who concluded he had "significant predatory traits" and should be kept in prison for as long as possible.

Kincaid said it was unclear from the records if the traits would qualify him as a sexually violent predator under the law.

The AP independently obtained computer-generated portions of Gardner's parole record after the corrections department reported it had routinely destroyed its paper field notes a year after Gardner was released from parole.

The department disclosed Tuesday that portions of the file were transferred to Gardner's central file.

--The Associated Press

Guadalupe Flores heard a loud explosion and ran out of his home in a Des Plaines mobile home park to find his neighbor's place engulfed in flames.

"We couldn't open the front door so I went to the back door, but I didn't see anyone," said Flores, 38, a metal press operator. "My friend broke a window in the front and saw the man standing there. He was in shock and he wasn't moving."

Flores returned to the back door with other friends and neighbors who were also trying to help, including Jose Orozco, Miguel Ramirez and Francisco Perez.

"I yelled, 'Come on, come on,' and he came out of the house," Flores said. "He walked out, but he was still in shock. His hair had been burned and he asked me for water for his hands, which had been burned as well."

While Flores said he was worried about getting too close to the burning home, he knew that rescuing his neighbor was something that he and his friends had to do.

"We couldn't leave him there," he said.

Despite tougher building standards in place for manufactured homes since the 1970s, the risk of dying in a fire remains greater for those who live in them, compared with traditional housing. Experts say trailer homes are more susceptible to fire, can burn more rapidly and, when they do go up in flames, the fire is more likely to spread to other dwellings.

According to the National Fire Protection Agency, from 1999 to 2002, there were 1.7 civilian deaths in mobile homes for every 100 fires in the U.S., compared with 0.8 deaths in other family dwellings.

Des Plaines fire investigators continue to investigate the cause of what appeared to be an explosion that tore off the roof of the unit at Town and Country mobile home park Monday, fire Chief Allan Wax said. Investigators determined that a natural gas leak as the preliminary cause of the fire, but where it came from is not yet known, he said.

The unidentified victim suffered significant burns to his upper body and was at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

Wax praised the "selfless" and "heroic" acts of neighbors who came to the man's rescue before firefighters arrived. And he encouraged people to call the gas company or fire department right away if they think they smell natural gas.

--Carolyn Rusin and Ruth Fuller

Chicago police asked for the public's help in finding two missing persons today, a 12-year-old girl and a 76-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease.

But as of about 8 p.m., the 76-year-old had been found "in safe and sound condition," police said. No other details were released.

Enosha Walls, 12, is missing from the area of 5000 South Michigan Avenue, police said in an alert issued today on behalf of Wentworth Area detectives. She was last seen by family on March 8.

Enosha is known to spending time in the 1100 block of North Cleveland Avenue; the 800 block of North Mohawk Avenue; and the 4900 block of West Iowa Street.

Enosha is black with a medium complexion and is 5 feet tall, weighing 150 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair that is twisted in braids, according to police. She was last seen wearing a black jacket, a white shirt and blue pants.

Detectives asked that anyone who sees Enosha call 911.

Meanwhile, Margaret Khanna, 76, of the 500 block of North Lake Shore Drive, had last been seen on Tuesday, near Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Ave., according to the earlier alert.

Police did not release where or when Khanna was found, only saying she was safe when she was located.

-- Staff report