Police and Courts

A 37-year-old man was critically wounded by gunfire during an argument early Wednesday in Bloomington, police said.

A 21-year-old Bloomington man was charged Tuesday with committing a hate crime and aggravated assault after allegedly driving his motorcycle through a crowd of demonstrators on Sunday.

Most of the people arrested in looting-related incidents Monday and Tuesday in Bloomington-Normal were McLean County residents, according to police and jail records.

After a demonstration and injury of a marcher, dozens of demonstrators gathered Sunday night outside the McLean County sheriff's department on the west side of the Law and Justice Center in downtown Bloomington.

UPDATED 10:50 a.m. | Bloomington Police have arrested a 21-year-old man who allegedly drove his motorcycle into a crowd of demonstrators Sunday night in downtown Bloomington, injuring two people.

Donald Whalen may have exceeded the legal and geographic bounds of the electronic monitoring device placed on his ankle after he was released from prison pending the outcome of his challenge to his murder conviction, according to testimony Friday from a court services official.

Bloomington Police said someone shot a 25-year-old man early Sunday.

UPDATED 6:20 p.m. | A man from Normal accused of causing second-degree burns to a 10-year-old child with severe disabilities claimed Friday the girl's injuries may have come from bathing by her in-home nurse.

Police chiefs for Normal, Bloomington and Illinois State University say they have not recorded any incidents of black residents being harassed for wearing masks in public.

Authorities have identified the 47-year-old Bloomington man killed in a motorcycle crash over the weekend on Hamilton Road.

The Bloomington-Normal branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is speaking out against two recent high-profile killings of African Americans and calling for dialogue during a virtual town hall meeting next week.

For two decades, Jamie Snow has fought his McLean County murder conviction, but his battle with an infectious disease that has killed 12 of his fellow inmates may pose the biggest threat to his life.

Snow is serving a life sentence at Stateville Correctional Center in the death of Bill Little, a clerk who was fatally shot behind the counter of a Bloomington gas station on Easter Sunday 1991. The Exoneration Project is representing Snow in his effort.

Authorities have identified a mother and her two young children who were killed in a fire early Saturday at a mobile home park in rural Lexington.

A 39-year-old from Normal was arrested Sunday night after allegedly hitting a pedestrian while driving under the influence with two children in his truck.

A widow has asked a federal judge to deny the Town of Normal’s request to dismiss her lawsuit over allegations a police officer stole $12,000 in cash from her home.

A LeRoy man who resigned his position with the University of Illinois Police Department after he was charged with official misconduct now faces criminal sexual assault charges.

A 10-year-old boy charged with murder in the April 2019 deaths of five people in a fire in Goodfield will continue to live with relatives while his case is pending, a Woodford County judge ruled Wednesday.

State police in Ullin, Ill., said Wednesday there has been an arrest in the killing of a teenager from Normal.

Haley Decker, 18, went missing March 4. Her body was found March 26 in the Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge in rural Pulaski County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said James A. Merritt, 32, of Morehouse, Mo., was arrested April 16 and initially charged with trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Illinois State Police and the FBI searched Merritt’s residence that day.

The Town of Normal and three police officers have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a widow who alleges a cop stole $12,000 from her home after her husband overdosed.

Officials are investigating the cause of an explosion Thursday in a boiler room at a Bloomington and Normal Water Reclamation District plant.

A 37-year-old Bloomington man is accused of setting a house on fire after an argument Monday.

A Bloomington technology firm claims in a federal lawsuit that one of its former top employees stole its secret customer list and used it to bolster his own competing company.

Fire forced evacuation of the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Uptown Normal on Thursday morning and heavily damaged a coffee and souvenir shop inside.

Authorities say an 18-year-old woman from Normal has been found dead in southern Illinois in an apparent homicide.

Don Whalen should be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence on murder charges in the 1991 death of his father, according to a motion filed Wednesday by McLean County prosecutors.

Authorities have identified a 34-year-old Bloomington man as the driver killed in Wednesday’s head-on crash on Interstate 74 near Morton.