Latest news with #Beamon
New York Post
14-05-2025
- New York Post
Fox News analyst Gianno Caldwell still seeking justice for brother killed in Chicago three years ago
Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell has gone nearly three years without answers in his younger brother's 2022 murder in Chicago. Caldwell's 18-year-old brother, Christian Beamon, was one of two people killed and two others injured in a shooting on Chicago's South Side on June 24, 2022, in an attack that was not intended for him, according to the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Advertisement 'It's tragic for my family and me, as someone who's been very actively seeking answers on my brother's murder,' Caldwell told Fox News Digital. 'And this is one in which I never would have fathomed three years ago that we would be at this particular point. It's horrific to know that families like mine experienced these kinds of things all the time … being without answers for years, but I must keep fighting for my brother. Simply put, I have no choice.' CPD told Fox News Digital that its investigation into Beamon's murder is ongoing, and no one was in custody in connection with the fatal shooting as of Monday. The June 24, 2022, shooting that killed Beamon on the 11400 block of South Vincennes Avenue also left an 18-year-old woman dead, a 31-year-old man in critical condition and a 25-year-old woman in 'fair' condition with a gunshot wound to the leg, according to CPD. 5 Fox News analyst Gianno Caldwell poses with his brother Christian Beamon for the younger sibling was killed in Chicago on June 24, 2022. Advertisement An unidentified male offender entered a black sedan and fled the scene eastbound after the shooting, according to CPD. There have been no other updates in the case since June 2022. Beamon's case was featured Monday evening on FOX's 'America's Most Wanted' with host John Walsh, who solved his 6-year-old son Adam Walsh's 1981 murder and has since dedicated his life to helping other families get justice. 'I mean, this is what goes on in Chicago,' Walsh told Fox News Digital. 'They have these crazy high homicide rates, and it's unacceptable. I've done several shows in Chicago, and I'm the father of a murdered child. My 6-year-old son, Adam, was kidnapped and murdered, so I know what it is to lose a child. And Gianno's whole family is devastated. You never get over that death. … There's no such thing as closure. … Most murder victims and survivors from murders don't believe in closure — they believe in ending the search, getting justice.' Advertisement Walsh added that even though years have passed since Beamon's murder, there is still hope for finding his killer. 5 Gianno Caldwell has gone nearly three years without answers in his younger brother's 2022 murder in Chicago. Instagram/@giannocaldwell Caldwell described Walsh as 'a legend.' 'I'm hopeful that there will be someone that's watching ['America's Most Wanted'] that was around that night or just simply knows something about what happened,' he said. 'They may have discovered something that is of help to my brother's case in the investigation into his murder. I'm really thankful and honored to be able to share the screen with somebody who's been doing this work for decades and has dedicated his life to it.' Advertisement Chicago reached a 25-year high in homicides in 2021, when it recorded 804 killings. Since then, that number has steadily fallen to 695 homicides in 2022, 617 homicides in 2023, and 573 homicides in 2024. Last year marked the first time in five years since the Windy City recorded a homicide total under 600. 'One murder is too many. It is way too many, and it's hard to say that we're moving in the right direction in the city of Chicago when there are still soft-on-crime policies in place that allow and empower criminals to commit more crime,' Caldwell said. 'Things like the no-chase policy where the police have to call in to their supervisor with their own foot in a car to get permission to pursue a suspect.' Walsh agreed that the number of murders in Chicago remains too high even though it has fallen since 2021. 5 Caldwell shared this family picture to Instagram that captured him having a meal with relatives including his younger brother. Instagram/@giannocaldwell The 'America's Most Wanted' host believes Beamon is one of many teens in Chicago who become 'collateral damage' in violent gang and drug wars; many killers don't even know their victims, which he believes to be the case in Beamon's murder. 'We have so many particularly Democratic leaders who just fight that tooth and nail because they're enamored with protecting criminals, and because they are so worried about criminal's rights they forget about victims and victims' rights, which is how you can have someone like Gianno Caldwell — a known identity, a known figure on the news stage — still without justice for his 18-year-old brother's murder,' Chicago Alderman Ramond Lopez told Fox News Digital. Of the 573 homicides recorded last year, CPD's Bureau of Detectives cleared 319, representing a clearance rate of 51.7%. — the highest since 2019. Advertisement 'We're closing cases without apprehending killers,' Lopez said. 'Oftentimes, we're seeing cases run cold because the city has not either A) fully staffed the detective's unit or B) put priority on working with community in a timely manner to try to apprehend individuals for these reprehensible crimes.' 5 CPD told Fox News Digital that its investigation into Beamon's murder is ongoing, and no one was in custody in connection with the fatal shooting as of Monday. Jeffery Salter for NY Post Walsh said he would have 'never read in the Chicago paper that [Caldwell's] brother had been murdered unless he was a reporter for Fox. 'The collateral damage in Chicago is catastrophic. But [the shooters] sprayed the crowd and several other people were hurt. And that wouldn't have reached the amount of publicity it's reached if Gianno didn't know me and he didn't work for Fox,' he said. Advertisement Walsh also noted that the 'defund police' movement has 'devastated' Chicago officers with demoralization. Retirements combined with low retention rates of young Chicago officers have created a perfect storm for staffing issues within the Department, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Additionally, a 2016 Department of Justice investigation found CPD's suicide rate was 60% higher than the national average at 22.7 suicides per 100,000 officers. Caldwell has since turned his pain into action with the Caldwell Institute for Public Safety, which aims to help families like his get justice for their loved ones who died as a result of violent crime. 5 Caldwell interviews House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outside the Capitol Building in Washington DC on Sept. 29, 2022. Getty Images 'The Institute is about law and order, it's about victims' rights and protecting victims, but it's ultimately about justice, no matter what that looks like, whether it be somebody who was … wrongly convicted or if it's about an individual who should be in jail and should be convicted,' he explained. Advertisement Caldwell and his brother were two of nine siblings who grew up poor in Chicago. The Fox analyst has repeatedly criticized the city's soft-on-crime policies that allow repeat offenders back on the streets. Born in 2004, Beamon was the youngest of the siblings and had just turned 18 in 2022. Caldwell previously told Fox News Digital that Beamon and his other younger brothers are like sons to him as the oldest sibling. Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects involved in the shooting that left Beamon dead.
USA Today
23-04-2025
- Health
- USA Today
She saw 26 doctors and had 37 procedures with no diagnosis in sight. Then, an answer.
She saw 26 doctors and had 37 procedures with no diagnosis in sight. Then, an answer. Show Caption Hide Caption How important is your family medical history? If you've been to a doctor before, you've probably been asked about your family medical history. How important is it actually? unbranded - Lifestyle Nika Beamon thought she was going to die. The former college athlete always played high-impact sports. Rugby, ice hockey, you name it. Always knocked down but toughing it out. By the time she was a senior at Boston College, though, toughing it out grew impossible. Waking up everyday was a struggle. Aches appeared out of nowhere, even when she wasn't exercising. She ran spontaneous fevers, like she was fighting an infection. Test after test – for mono, for anything – all failed to spit out a diagnosis. She had no family history of diseases; her brothers were perfectly healthy. But everyone agreed on one thing: Something was up. "I did not have any doctor who didn't think nothing was wrong," the now 52-year-old award-winning journalist says. "Everybody thought something was wrong. They just didn't know what it was." Fatigue and joint pain plagued her 20s. She suffered two strokes by the time she turned 35. Her lymph nodes swelled constantly, but biopsies showed no cancer. "I don't know who this is, but this doesn't seem like me," she adds. "I felt like I was aging rapidly. It was like, as if you went from 20 to 50 in a day." Beamon set out on a journey, and 26 doctors, 37 procedures and more than 17 years later, a rheumatologist finally cracked the confounding code: She had immune disorder IgG4-related disease, and all she needed was a blood test to confirm it. "There's no way I could have been to this many doctors and had this much blood drawn and nobody saw it," Beamon recalls. "(Her doctor) said, 'Well, they wouldn't be testing for it unless there was a reason.'" I got 14 tests done at this resort: I didn't need most of them. 'Most patients do well' IgG4-RD is an immune-mediated disorder. When someone has it, their immune system goes into overdrive, producing more antibodies (or immunoglobulins, hence the name) than necessary that disrupt typical organ function. "It's not cancers or anything," says Dr. Arezou Khosroshahi, associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine. "It's just that they are confused and they are reacting to something." The disease itself is not deadly, but left untreated, the antibodies can infiltrate different parts of the body like the pancreas, lung or liver. For example, if an accumulation of cells block the bile ducts, a patient can develop cirrhosis, or liver damage. The same pattern may pop up across different organs. Another wrinkle: Patients may be asymptomatic. If you catch it on time, a patient can live a normal life with regular follow-up appointments. But if someone's organ(s) already had severe dysfunction, you'll have to treat any associated consequential conditions, too. "I can't emphasize enough, this is very important, because people think, 'Oh, I've got a steroid and I feel much better, so I don't need treatment,' but then they come back two years later with significant damage. But in general, if this disease is diagnosed on time and treated, most patients do well." It's a challenging diagnosis, as the disease mimics other conditions. A majority of the time, if the cell accumulation turns into a mass, a doctor will do a biopsy to make sure it's not cancer. As more awareness of the disease grows, a radiologist might look at a CT scan and notice a similar pattern of inflammation or swelling across multiple organ systems that put IgG4-RD into a diagnosis differential. It mostly affects middle-aged and older men, though anyone can have it regardless of age, gender, race or ethnicity. Japanese gastroenterologists first recognized the condition in 2006, with Khosroshahi and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital identifying it in 2008. The disease was officially named in 2012 at the premier symposium focused on IgG4-RD. In case you need: Boost your immune system to fight germs 'You still have good days and bad days' Beamon takes medication and sees all kinds of doctors today to keep her organs in check. She started out with steroids to keep her inflammation down, but they're notorious for rough side effects, not meant to be taken long-term. IgG4-RD has been typically treated with a taper dose of a steroid like prednisone, followed by off-label immunosuppressive medications. The FDA recently approved new drug Uplizna to treat IgG4-RD, the first to treat the specific condition. It's a monoclonal antibody that targets certain B-cells to inhibit production of IgG4; in a clinical trial, it had an 87% reduction of flare-ups of the disease. "You still have good days and bad days, and that's the thing," Beamon says of how she currently lives with the disorder. "Depends on when you have a flare or the inflammation is high." She's coped well with a supportive online community, particularly after she began documenting her journey and writing a book: "Misdiagnosed: The Search for Dr. House." Beamon hopes anyone searching for a diagnosis advocates for themselves, keeps track of their medical records and brings loved ones to appointments with them. Don't think your doctor knows more about your body than you do, either. Still, she doesn't blame anyone for not figuring out her IgG4-RD sooner. "I found it when I found the right person who looked outside the box and said, 'forget what she looks like. Forget what they're telling you. Let me just look at what the documents tell me that she might have' and that's how we got there," she says. "But I don't think it was anybody's fault." Her biggest takeaway, though – apart from do not Google your symptoms too much, because every website will tell you you're dying – keep the faith. "There's always a doctor out there that can help you. You just have to find the right one."
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Yahoo
Nonprofit CEO calls on parents to help reduce youth violence
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Wednesday marks a week since a deadly mass shooting happened at a building for Memphis Allies, an anti-gun violence nonprofit. 22-year-old Matthew Williams was killed and five other men were injured. So far, there have not been any arrests. WREG spoke with the founder and CEO of a local nonprofit with a similar mission as Memphis Allies. He said this shooting is a part of a bigger issue. LaDell Beamon, who founded the Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis said adults and parents are needed to help reduce youth violence. On Apr. 9, a drive-by shooting at Memphis Allies, located on South Mendenhall Road, claimed the life of Matthew Williams. ORIGINAL STORY: 1 dead, 5 men injured in Southeast Memphis shooting In a statement, the organization said Williams was turning his life around and recently joined its SWITCH program, also known as, 'Support with Intention to Create Hope.' Beamon said he was disturbed when he heard about the deadly shooting. 'It's very unfortunate,' Beamon said. 'It's actually kind of like a slap in the face to me because you know, there's so many people that want an opportunity to get out and then there are people that are standing in the way of it.' Similar to Memphis Allies, Beamon's organization's mission is to create positive outlets for the city's youth. However, he told Your News Leader, that mission does come with challenges. 'Any city that builds with children in mind will win,' Beamon said. 'And so, there's a real large gap in between having to meet the needs of the young people that we're serving and having the resources and the real places to be able to reach those kids.' Building for anti-gun violence nonprofit becomes site of mass shooting Beamon said the deadly shooting at Memphis Allies proves that more work needs to be done. 'It's gonna be important this summer to make sure that we're guarding the ear gates of kids, making sure that the right messages are in front of the kids at all times,' Beamon said. 'And then having the right opportunities to fill that leftover space where kids are not being occupied and satisfied in that arena.' Despite the gun violence that occurred last week, Memphis Allies said it's dedicated to its mission, which includes preventing gun violence and saving the next generation. Memphis Police are offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in Matthew Williams' deadly shooting. The victim's family has also set up a GoFundMe for his funeral expenses. If you would like to donate, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Yahoo
Retrial for murder of W&M student hears testimony from man also accused in killing
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The retrial of Keith Bryant in the April 2019 killing of William & Mary student Nate Evans entered its second full day of testimony Wednesday. Bryant's first trial was declared a mistrial due to a hung jury in April 2024. Bryant and another man, Kri'shawn Beamon, are both charged with murder in the case, though only one gun is alleged to have been used. Beamon, who was originally charged less than a week after the incident, took to the stand to defend himself and, mostly did not recall details from it. The proceedings narrowly avoided becoming a second mistrial Tuesday, after Bryant's defense attorney, Mario Lorello, demonstrated that a Norfolk Police detective who worked the case had not handed over all available documents before trial. It was actually Lorello, however, who requested a mistrial not be declared, even though he had argued for more documents in pre-trial hearings. A jury was selected and opening arguments were made by Monday afternoon. The court then heard testimony from a witness who had heard the gunshots and discovered Evans' body on the night of March 21, 2019. He described hearing the loud pops — not uncommon in Norfolk — and seeing a calm crowd outside his house on 43rd Street near Old Dominion University. He said a Ford Fusion backed into the car behind it and sped away with no lights on. Tuesday, the court heard from the detectives and other law enforcement personnel who investigated the case over the last six years. A forensic scientist explained to the jury how they linked the shell casings to the murder weapon — a Glock handgun firing 9mm Luger cartridges. It was the testimony of Norfolk Police Sgt. La'Toya Mitchell, one of the original detectives, that almost brought the proceedings to a halt. She testified that video of the car fleeing the area led to the arrest and eventual charging of Beamon, the owner. In the trunk, they found a black Glock gun box that had a serial number. When Mitchell said she had gotten an ATF trace on the serial number, Lorello threw his pen down onto his desk and complained to the judge that that information had never been turned over to his side, that this had been an issue in the first trial, and that he had requested such documents before. 'I'm not sure what else I can do,' he said, lamenting to the court, before requesting an instruction be given to the jury about the police violating the Brady rule. Mitchell said the single-page document was the only thing she had withheld. The judge asked angrily if she expected the court to believe that. After a brief conversation with the attorneys, the judge explained to the jury that the police department had violated its responsibility to turn over all documents. Lorello went on to question why Mitchell had not investigated what he viewed as other leads in the case, despite multiple years to do so. When Beamon's car was located, he noted, the man driving it refused to turn his phone over to police, telling them there might be 'stuff to tie me to the murder.' Lorello questioned why he was not investigated as a person of interest. Mitchell explained they lacked the probable cause. The case was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The questioning grew heated as Lorello suggested Mitchell purposefully did not turn over other documents, making important decisions that were up to the Commonwealth's Attorney's office. Lorello then accused her of violating Beamon's right to have an attorney present during interrogation, citing the tape of their conversation the night Beamon was arrested. The transcript showed that the two continued to talk for a substantial amount of time after Beamon invoked his right. Lorello said she was clearly making statements designed to elicit a response, which counts as questioning under Virginia law. Mitchell was called to the stand to clarify what they talked about Wednesday afternoon. She reiterated that she did not ask Beamon any questions about the case and that she even reminded him that he had requested a lawyer multiple times. She said it was Beamon who asked questions, and who said he was scared and asked for a hug. She testified that she held his hand, that she reminded him of his mother. When she tried to leave the room, he kept the conversation going. Beamon complained that he had been robbed of his chance to play football for a Division I school. 'No one robbed you of the rest of your life,' she said in response, according to a portion of the transcript read in court. Under a second grilling by Lorello, Wednesday, Mitchell defended her decision not to investigate a suspicious jail call between Beamon and some friends. The defense attorney described one of the statements made in it as signaling that he was taking credit for a crime he didn't do in order to protect the real perpetrator. 'Listen to my voice; I can't tell you who's talking, but if you end up good, I'll end up good,' a voice told Beamon, according to Lorello's read of a transcript of the call. Beamon, for his part, told the court that he had only ever fired guns with his father, and that he didn't play with them. He also denied recalling answers to most of the questions asked him, including about numerous inconsistent statements, spurring Lorello to ask if he had memory issues. He said he had bought marijuana products from Evans before, and that he had remotely wiped his phone — which was left at the scene — to protect it from 'strangers.' He had set up the weed deal, he said, but he didn't know anything about the shooting. Lorello accused him of pinning the blame on his client in order to get out of jail after three years of pre-trial detention. Beamon's response was mumbled. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
