CHICAGO (WLS) — Cook dinner County is within the midst of a “home violence disaster.”
That is the message shared with the ABC7 I-Workforce by State’s Legal professional Eileen O’Neill Burke and survivor advocates working to place an finish to the threats typically behind closed doorways.
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As Chicago leaders cautiously rejoice a decline in some areas of violent crime, authorities are additionally sounding the alarm as home violence crimes are spiking.
Chicago has recorded 29 domestic-related homicides to date in 2025 alone. Simply final week, two horrific and separate stabbing assaults in Streamwood and on town’s South Facet are below investigation with youngsters among the many victims.
Advocates and the county’s high prosecutor inform the I-Workforce motion to deal with the issue must be rapid.
“It is a home on fireplace,” Burke instructed the I-Workforce in an unique interview. “We knew instantly that we needed to deal with home violence.”
‘Assist me!’
It was a brutal assault that left a mom lifeless, two younger boys severely injured, and a seek for the person accountable crossing state strains.
Teone Jones, 33, was found stabbed and bleeding to loss of life in her South Facet two flat on the night time of Feb. 20. Prosecutors say Jones’s two younger sons have been additionally stabbed and one was kidnapped by their father, 39-year-old Marcus Bausley.
After he was critically injured, the older son managed to get away from Bausley after the assault and ran to neighbor Cynthia Keel’s dwelling for assist.
Keel’s doorbell digicam captured video of the younger boy banging on her entrance door.
“After which [I heard] this bam, bam, bam and ‘Assist Me!'” Keel recalled.
Jones’s different son was briefly lacking and authorities issued a nationwide Amber Alert. Finally, police mentioned he too was in a position to get away from Bausley, and stroll right into a fuel station trying to find assist.
Bausley was arrested days later after a police chase in Indiana, and he’s now dealing with homicide and tried homicide expenses. In April, courtroom information present Bausley pleaded not responsible to the costs.
The horrific case is certainly one of dozens of home violence murders simply this yr in Cook dinner County which have highlighted the rising development for State’s Legal professional Burke.
“As my first assistant likes to say, if we won’t cease violence within the dwelling, we’re by no means going to cease violence on the road,” Burke mentioned.
The newly-formed ‘Particular Victims Bureau’
Because the newly-installed State’s Legal professional for Cook dinner County, Burke is promising a harder prosecutorial method on all violent crime, but it surely’s home violent crime that she mentioned shakes her to the core, and is a high precedence within the workplace’s new and aggressive plan.
“Now we have restructured the whole system to make it possible for now we have the perfect individuals in place,” Burke mentioned. “Now we have our most skilled State’s Attorneys able to tackle these sorts of homicide circumstances, in order that we get individuals justice in a fast trend.”
The State’s Legal professional’s workplace has created a brand new bureau, Burke defined, referred to as the “Particular Victims Bureau” which focuses on home violence crimes, in addition to sexual assault, crimes towards youngsters and hate crimes.
A part of the overhaul that is reportedly already producing tangible outcomes consists of revised communications with legislation enforcement and the courtroom, partially to lock up these thought of most harmful.
An inner Cook dinner County Sheriff’s report – obtained by the I-Workforce by way of a Freedom of Data Act request – states since December, the variety of individuals ordered detained for all expenses has elevated by 47% by way of the tip of March, in comparison with the month earlier than Burke took workplace.
The report discovered pre-trial detentions for home battery have elevated by greater than 80%.
Burke mentioned prosecutors at the moment are weighing further elements when deciding if somebody ought to be held in-custody earlier than trial.
“[Have] there been allegations of abuse on youngsters? Have there been different incidences of violence within the dwelling? Are there weapons within the dwelling?” Burke defined. “These are the issues we take a look at earlier than, and now we have to verify we current to the decide once we [request] detention.”
‘It has been an awfully lethal yr.’
Information reviewed by the I-Workforce discovered domestic-related homicides within the metropolis of Chicago have elevated from 36 in 2019, to 44 in 2024, in line with town’s violence discount dashboard.
Not even midway by way of 2025, town has recorded 29 homicides as of June 2.
Advocates say that is an undercount because it does not embrace all of Cook dinner County. The dearth of a centralized database of crime statistics together with home violence crimes, they are saying, is a serious situation for Illinois, and hindrance for these monitoring the issue.
Amanda Pyron, President and CEO of “The Community: Advocating Towards Home Violence” mentioned regardless of violent crime total trending down, domestic-related crime has gone up.
“Why is that this occurring to home violence victims once we’re fixing it in so many different locations? My speculation is we have invested much more assets in group primarily based violence. And if we invested those self same assets in combating home violence homicides, we might doubtless see the identical outcomes,” Pyron mentioned.
“It has been an awfully lethal yr,” Pyron instructed the I-Workforce.
Whereas Teone Jones’ South Facet neighbors are mourning her loss, some are utilizing the second to attempt to higher defend others experiencing home violence at dwelling.
Candace Collins, who lives just some doorways down from the place Jones was murdered, mentioned she’s on a mission to struggle for extra survivor assets.
As a neighbor and courtroom advocate, Collins mentioned she has proven up for each single courtroom listening to for Jones’s accused assassin, offering a voice on behalf of the boys, and their murdered mom.
“If we’re not there talking out or saying something supporting the victims, the courtroom would possibly let him out [and] put them on digital monitoring,” Collins mentioned.
Relations inform the I-Workforce Jones’s two boys are recovering and doing nicely, however can have an extended highway forward coping with the bodily and emotional scars from their accused father.
Cook dinner County’s high prosecutor mentioned she’s listening.
“Each single time a lady has been overwhelmed, choked, killed in entrance of her youngsters, it actually cuts to my coronary heart,” Burke mentioned. “These are the circumstances that wake me up in the midst of the night time.”
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