Hermosa

Cook County prosecutors dropped three misdemeanor charges against a Northwest Side man accused of aiming a laser at a CPD helicopter, but federal prosecutors have now charged him with a felony carrying up to five years in prison. The case comes as the FBI warns of a dangerous rise in laser strikes around Chicago.

A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a CTA bus stop in front of witnesses on a weekday morning this month told police he only touched her accidentally when a scooter passed by after he had consumed shots of “Canadian Diesel,” prosecutors say. But a judge rejected that explanation, calling the attack “violent and brazen” and ordering Jignesh Patel, 43, detained pending trial.

A man was shot Saturday night in an alley in the Hermosa neighborhood, and it’s unclear how long he lay there before anyone found him, because no one called 911 to report gunfire, he did not cooperate with police, and the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system that once covered the area was shut down by Mayor Brandon Johnson in September 2024.

A 21-year-old Hoffman Estates man fled to Louisiana and tried to hide his identity after murdering a man inside a Hermosa bar in December, officials say. Devin Roldan-Brossett was extradited to Chicago from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to face murder charges last week.

When Chicago police seized 211 catalytic converters and arrested two men at a West Side in June 2023, it was the culmination of a year-long investigation. Now, the man prosecutors dubbed the “ringleader” of the operation has pleaded guilty in exchange for a three-year sentence.

Prosecutors have charged a man with hate crime after he allegedly threatened a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who is a lesbian.

A Fourth of July celebration turned deadly Thursday night in the Hermosa neighborhood when a large firework struck a 34-year-old man in the head.