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Police officer killed in shooting in Chicago suburb; suspect in custody

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Oak Park Police detective shot and killed in the line of duty


Oak Park Police detective shot and killed in the line of duty

04:22

OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) — An Oak Park police officer was shot and killed Friday morning while responding to a report of a man with a gun leaving a bank. The suspect also was shot by police, and has been taken into custody.

Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said Detective Allan Reddins, 40, had been with the Oak Park Police Department since May 2019. He was the first Oak Park officer killed in the line of duty since 1938.    

“This is the worst day of any chief of police,” Johnson said. “Our police department, we’re hurting right now. I’m hurting. His family is hurting. Please keep us in your prayers.”

Around 9 a.m., Reddins responded to a call of a man with a gun leaving the Chase Bank in the 1000 block of Lake Street, according to Johnson. Reddins and other officers came across the suspect in the 800 block of Lake Street, and told the man to show them his hands.

The gunman brandished a handgun and shot Reddins in the left side. Officers returned fire, shooting the suspect in the leg.

Reddins was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead at 10:10 a.m. The suspect also was being treated at Loyola.

The shooting caught people in Oak Park off guard, and left bullet holes in the windows at the village’s main library, which was closed to the public after the shooting.

A witness said she was at the UPS store nearby when she heard someone storm out of a store and then heard what sounded like gunshots.

“I knew it was gunshots. I didn’t want to believe that,” she said. 

Nicholas Gradishar said us he was walking to a friend’s house nearby when he heard gunshots.

“I get down after I hear the shots, and then I come to the library to see it littered with cops,” he said.

Gradishar said he saw police take the suspect into custody after he’d been shot.

“They were checking his pockets. They found a little handgun, but off to the side there was an ARP with a flashlight. So I don’t know which one he used to shoot at the cops, but he had multiple guns on him,” he said.

Gradishar recorded footage of the suspect on the ground with a gun nearby. Moments later, parademics took him away on a stretcher.

“Nothing happens up here. You may find a fight or so, but nothing like this will ever happen here. So it’s wild,” he said.

A police procession took Reddins’ body from the hospital to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Friday afternoon. Dozens of police officers and firefighters from Chicago, Oak Park, and other suburbs stood at attention and saluted as the ambulance arrived and Reddins’ body was escorted inside.  

Johnson said Reddins leaves behind a 19-year-old son, along with his mother and siblings. 

The chief described him as a “natural-born leader, devoted father,” saying she personally conducted Reddins’ background check before hiring him as an officer in 2019.

“I quickly identified that he had a talent that was needed here,” she said. “He closed substantial cases, and helped us to resolve countless incidents. He was a natural,”

Before joining the Oak Park Police Department, Reddins also had served with the Metra Police Department. He’d been a detective in Oak Park since 2022.

“I thought he would make a phenomenal field training officer as well, and I was looking very much forward to him becoming a sergeant. He was just a natural leader,” Johnson said. “He would always take the extra step, go the extra step, and that’s huge, to say what else can be done?”

Investigation into the incident was ongoing Friday evening. Johnson declined to say if the shooting was captured on video, but said Oak Park officers are equipped with body cameras.

Information on Reddins’ funeral arrangements will be posted on the Oak Park village website once they have been made.



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Blinken publicly confirms U.S. officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that ousted Assad

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that spearheaded the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad’s government but is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.

Blinken is the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that ousted Assad from power last Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference in Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken would not discuss details of the contacts but said it was important for the U.S. to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.

“Yes, we have been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said. He added that “our message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed and we’re prepared to help them do so.”

Blinken also said that officials are “also communicating directly with those in positions of authority in Syria.” 

JORDAN-US-UN-SYRIA-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks after meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan’s southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images


HTS, which was once an affiliate of al-Qaida, has been designed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department since 2018. That designation carries with it severe sanctions, including a ban on the provision of any “material support” to the group or its members. The sanctions do not, however, legally bar U.S. officials from communicating with designated groups.

In an interview Saturday on Syrian television, the group’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, did not address any direct contact with the United States, but said the new authorities in Damascus, the capital, are in touch with Western embassies.

HTS has worked to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus and has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad’s fall and concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels. Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past.

Al-Sharaa appeared in a video message Friday congratulating “the great Syrian people for the victory of the blessed revolution.”

U.S. officials say al-Sharaa has been making welcome comments about protecting minority and women’s rights but remain skeptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.


Concern over Syria’s future despite collapse of Assad regime

02:30

“We know that what happens inside of Syria can have powerful consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism, and we know that we can’t underestimate the challenges of this moment and in the weeks and months ahead,” Blinken said Saturday. 

On Friday, the rebels and Syria’s unarmed opposition worked to safely turn over to U.S. officials an American man who had been imprisoned by Assad.

Blinken said U.S. officials are continuing “our own dogged, determined efforts” as they search for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared 12 years ago near Damascus.

“We have impressed upon everyone we’ve been in contact with the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken said.

Travis Timmerman, the American who said he was freed from a Syrian prison after Assad’s ouster, was taken out of the country by the U.S. military, CBS News reported earlier this week



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Suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO hires former Manhattan prosecutor

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Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, has added a prominent defense lawyer to his legal team as Manhattan prosecutors work to return him from Pennsylvania to face a murder charge.

Mangione will be represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was a high-ranking deputy in the Manhattan district attorney’s office for years before entering private practice. Friedman Agnifilo’s law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed in a statement late Friday that she had been retained to represent Mangione. The firm said she will not be commenting on the case at this time.

According to her firm’s website, “A public servant for nearly three decades, Karen Friedman Agnifilo left the government as the Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, a role she held from 2014 through 2021.”

Mangione was arrested Monday after a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, saw him eating breakfast and noticed a resemblance to the person being sought by police in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson in Manhattan.

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Luigi Mangione, who comes from a prominent Maryland family that owns country clubs and healthcare facilities in the Baltimore area, is accused in the Dec. 4 killing in Midtown Manhattan.

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Police say Mangione was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was arriving for his company’s annual investor conference. 

The New York Police Department told CBS News that there are no indications that Mangione was a UnitedHealthcare customer. 

Mangione, 26, remained jailed without bail Saturday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with gun and forgery offenses. Altoona is about 230 miles west of New York City.

Mangione’s lawyer there, Thomas Dickey, has cautioned against prejudging the case and said that his client would contest his extradition to New York.

But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that there were indications Mangione may now give up on that fight.

“We going to continue to press forward on parallel paths, and we’ll be ready whether he is going to waive extradition or whether he is going to contest extradition,” Bragg said at an unrelated press conference in Times Square.

Hours after Mangione’s arrest on Monday, Bragg’s office filed paperwork charging him with five counts, including intentional murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she’s prepared to ask her Pennsylvania counterpart, Gov. Josh Shapiro, to intervene and issue a governor’s warrant requiring Mangione’s extradition if he does not agree to be moved voluntarily.

Mangione’s new lawyer has made frequent TV appearances, including as a CNN legal analyst, co-hosts a weekly podcast and is the legal adviser for “Law & Order.”

Her husband and law partner Mark Agnifilo is representing Sean “Diddy” Combs in the hip-hop mogul’s Manhattan federal sex trafficking case.



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Spain’s Mango clothing chain founder dies in accident

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Isak Andic, the founder of Spanish clothing retailer Mango, one of Europe’s largest fashion groups with nearly 2,800 stores worldwide, died Saturday in an accident, the company said.

Mango New Collection Presentation at Centre Pompidou - Photocall And Party
Mango CEO Isak Andic poses during the Mango New Collection Presentation at Centre Pompidou on May 17, 2011 in Paris, France. 

Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage via Getty


“It is with deep regret that we announce the unexpected death of Isak Andic, our non-executive chairman and founder of Mango,” the Barcelona-based company’s CEO, Toni Ruiz, said in a statement.

“Isak has been an example for all of us. He dedicated his life to Mango, leaving an indelible mark thanks to his strategic vision, his inspiring leadership and his unwavering commitment to values that he himself imbued in our company,” he added.

The company did not provide further details about the accident. Spanish media said the 71-year-old died after falling while hiking with several members of his family near Barcelona. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a post on social media, “My condolences to the family of Isak Andic, founder of Mango, on his tragic death in an accident in the Salnitre de Collbató caves.” He added, “All my love and recognition for your great work and business vision, which has turned this Spanish firm into a world leader in fashion.”

Mango traces its origins to 1984, when Andic, who is of Turkish origin, opened his first shop on the Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona’s famous shopping street, with the help of his older brother Nahman.

It was hugely successful. Spain had just emerged from a decades-long dictatorship that ended with the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975, and consumers were hungry for more modern clothes.

“His departure leaves a huge void, but we are all, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements. It is up to us, and this is the best tribute we can make to Isak and which we will fulfill, to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak aspired to and of which he would be proud,” Ruiz said. 

Mango has consolidated its position as one of the leading international fashion groups, with a major presence in more than 120 markets and 15,500 employees worldwide, according to its website.



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