1 dead, 1 wounded in front of Old Town convenience store

One man was shot to death and another seriously wounded in the Old Town neighborhood this evening, among at least four people shot since this afternoon in the city, authorities said.

A man, age 31, was shot and a man, age 20, was shot in the back in an attack about 6:15 p.m. in the 1300 block of North Sedgwick Street.

The 31-year-old was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was declared dead, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien, citing preliminary information. He was at least the second shooting victim to die today in Chicago.

The other victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Chief Joe Roccasalva.

The shooting took place in front of a convenience store, police said.

Neighbors said one man was shot inside the store, the other outside. They reported hearing as many as 10 gunshots and later saw one man being taken away in a neck brace, the other being revived by paramedics.

Family members said the man who was killed grew up in the neighborhood and in the Cabrini-Green public housing complex nearby, and recently had a child. Before heading to the hospital, family members huddled in the street near the shop, crying.

The convenience store is a typical neighborhood shop, selling basic food and household items as well as cell phones. Uniformed officers and detectives were inside with store employees this evening as other officers canvassed the area.

Neighbors said they are angered by what they say seems to be an increase in crime in the area.

“You can’t even go to the store without getting shot and killed,” said Chante Morris, 30, who lives nearby.

Another shooting wounded a 21-year-old man about 90 minutes after the homicide. A 21-year-old was shot in the 600 block of East 51st Street about 7 p.m., Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said. He was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in fair condition with wounds to his right forearm and hip, Gaines said.

Earlier, two people were shot and seriously wounded, apparently in the parking lot of a small strip mall on the Southwest Side this afternoon, authorities said.

The shooting took place just after 4 p.m. near 65th Street and Western Avenue, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien. Photos from the scene showed police checking the pavement of a strip mall on the southwest corner of 65th and Western for shell casings following the shooting.

Two men were wounded in the shooting and both were in serious condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Chief Joe Roccasalva. One was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment, the other to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, he said.

On the scene, a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg was considered in serious condition, and the other man, age 19, shot in the leg, was considered in good condition, O'Brien said. The older of the two was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the younger to Advocate Christ Medical Center.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Panasonic considers headcount savings, asset sales in revival plan

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Japan‘s Panasonic Corp may see its headcount fall further and may sell non-core money-making business units to raise cash, president Kazuhiro Tsuga told reporters at the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Hammered by competition from South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics, Panasonic may also squeeze wages and seek joint ventures in its semiconductors and other struggling operations in a bid to rekindle profit growth, Tsuga said.

Shares in Panasonic slipped 1.4 percent to a two-week low in Tokyo morning trade, compared to a 0.4 percent increase on the benchmark Nikkei average.

The Panasonic chief said in an earlier keynote speech he would pursue strategies to expand business-to-business sales of car batteries, in-flight entertainment systems, hydrogen cells, solar panels and LED lighting.

Japan’s share of the world’s flat panel TV market this year likely contracted to 31 percent compared with 41 percent in 2010, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.

Panasonic earlier unveiled a prototype of the world’s largest organic light-emitting display screen in a show of technological one-upmanship with its South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics Inc.

Sony Corp, which is cooperating with Panasonic in OLED technology, unwrapped on Monday its own 56-inch ultra high-definition model.

Tsuga, who heads Japan’s biggest commercial employer with 300,000 staff, is also pursuing a niche strategy and bolstering the company’s appliance business in a bid to capture more profitable markets while the likes of Samsung and Apple Inc slug it out in mass-market consumer electronics.

The executive has promised to deliver the details of the revival plan by the end of March, when he plans to reorganize 88 businesses into 56 units.

So far he has said that businesses that fail to achieve a 5 percent operating margin within two years will be shuttered or sold. Sales of the weakest ones may start next business year. Panasonic in the year to March 31 is forecasting a net loss of $ 8.9 billion.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Paul Tait and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Maura Tierney, Courtney B. Vance join Tom Hanks in Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy” on Broadway

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Maura Tierney and Courtney B. Vance have joined the cast of “Lucky Guy.

The story of a tabloid columnist in 1980s New York will mark Tom Hanks‘ Broadway debut.

The writer isn’t too shabby either. Nora Ephron, the screenwriter of “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” wrote the script before she died of cancer last year. Hanks starred in Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” and was one of the speakers at her New York City memorial last July.

Like Hanks, Tierney (left) will also be making her Broadway debut. She has appeared off-Broadway on stage and previously appeared in “ER” and “Newsradio,” earning an Emmy nomination for the former. She will play Hanks’ wife in “Lucky Guy.”

Vance is a stage veteran and a two-time Tony Award nominee. “Lucky Guy” will mark the first time he has appeared on Broadway since starring in August Wilson’s “Fences” and John Guare‘s “Six Degrees of Separation” in the 1980s. Vance is perhaps best known for his work on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” He will play Hanks’ editor.

George C. Wolfe (“Angels in America”) will direct the play, which also reunites Hanks with his “Bosom Buddies” co-star Peter Scolari.

“Lucky Guy” will play a limited engagement at the Broadhurst Theatre. It will open April 1, and previews will begin March 1.

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Recipes for Health: Cauliflower and Tuna Salad — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

I have added tuna to a classic Italian antipasto of cauliflower and capers dressed with vinegar and olive oil. For the best results give the cauliflower lots of time to marinate.

1 large or 2 small or medium cauliflowers, broken into small florets

1 5-ounce can water-packed light (not albacore) tuna, drained

1 plump garlic clove, minced or pureéd

1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or champagne vinegar

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Place the cauliflower in a steaming basket over 1 inch of boiling water, cover and steam 1 minute. Lift the lid for 15 seconds, then cover again and steam for 5 to 8 minutes, until tender. Refresh with cold water, then drain on paper towels.

2. In a large bowl, break up the tuna fish and add the cauliflower.

3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the garlic, parsley, capers, lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower and toss together. Marinate, stirring from time to time, for 30 minutes if possible before serving. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature.

Yield: Serves 6 as a starter or side dish

Advance preparation: You can make this up to a day ahead, but omit the parsley until shortly before serving so that it doesn’t fade. It keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Nutritional information per serving: 188 calories; 15 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 10 milligrams cholesterol; 8 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 261 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 9 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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Rosenthal: New Sears boss hopes to be a new kind of merchant

He's been a big-time investor in the retail sector for more than 15 years and was chairman of Kmart after it emerged from bankruptcy about a decade ago. A few years later, he paired it with once-dominant Sears.

Yet even as Eddie Lampert is poised next month to add the role of chief executive to that of chairman at retail giant Sears Holdings, he's still characterized generally as just a hedge fund guy.

This, Lampert suggested in a rare interview Tuesday, fails to acknowledge changes in the 21st century retail industry as well as the Hoffman Estates-based company he seeks to revive.

"The most successful guy in retail right now is Jeff Bezos, and he was a (Wall Street) hedge fund guy," Lampert, 50, said by phone. "I think a lot of times when people talk about merchants it's almost a nostalgic look back at the time where the world moved at a very different pace and information was very different."

Lampert has decided to succeed Lou D'Ambrosio, who is leaving to tend to a family health issue. Critics complain that this is just the latest missed opportunity to have a world-class merchandiser run the struggling company.

"So it's Eddie Lampert who's going to be there, and he's a smart guy and insightful when it comes to doing deals, but he doesn't have a track record at running a retail operation," said Evan Mann, an analyst with Gimme Credit.

Lampert argues that a new kind of sales, one that encompasses e-commerce, traditional bricks-and-mortar, mobile and more, requires a new kind of merchant.

"Trying to move the volume of products we're talking about from place to place to get it ultimately into the customer's hands, to price these items, to market these items, I think the retail business is incredibly complex," Lampert said. "But if you get it right, it's a beautiful thing."

"I'm not denying that there are still great merchants," he said. "But to operate a company of the size of Sears Holdings or Wal-Mart or Target or Home Depot or Lowe's, you need a combination of skills, and each of those skills needs to be sufficiently strong."

Lampert can make the case that he is a modern-day merchant. He still hasn't proved he's a good one. For six successive years, Sears Holdings has seen no top-line growth, due to slipping sales and store closings.

"I understand and I appreciate people looking at same-store sales as an indicator," D'Ambrosio said during the call. "I think when you look at the financial shape of the company, there's clear progress."

D'Ambrosio noted four consecutive quarters of EBITDA growth and the fact the company raised $1.8 billion of liquidity in 2012 while reducing net debt by $400 million.

Overshadowed in Monday's news of the leadership change were other glimmers of hope: Sears' domestic comparable-store sales for the nine weeks ended Dec. 29 were up 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the strategy of technological convergence, which included a loyalty program, has yielded a wellspring of consumer data and changed customers' relationship with the retailer. Kmart and U.S. Sears' online sales are up 20 percent.

"It's never a good time for a transition, but what I would tell you is, five years ago, we put in place a more distributed leadership structure," Lampert said. "Despite what people may have said or written, there is a difference between a chairman role and a CEO role, and I've never been in the CEO role in this company."

D'Ambrosio predicted Lampert will offer strategic continuity. But handicappers have long questioned whether the old horse had any giddy-up left in its step to catch up to and keep pace with Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.

And not to beat a dead metaphor, but the suspicion among many all along has been that Lampert saw neither a thoroughbred nor tireless workhorse in the parent of Sears and Kmart as so many parts to be cut up, boiled down and sold off.

"I was very clear why we put these companies together and what our goals were," Lampert said. "It was really to allow both Sears and Kmart to compete in what I thought was going to be a more challenging but evolving industry. The framework which was placed upon me and the company was: 'OK, this was all about real estate. It's about selling real estate.' Then when we didn't sell real estate, it became: 'Well, they missed the opportunity in 2006, 2007 to sell the real estate.'

"I've never denied there was substantial real estate value in the company," he said. "Suffice it to say that … the most value can be created if we actually transform it."

Fortune in 2006 called Lampert "the best investor of his generation." A Forbes contributor last year ranked him No. 2 on a list of the worst CEOs, and while acknowledging Lampert was Sears Holdings' chairman and not CEO, the contributor argued that "Lampert has called the shots, he's missed every target" and that he had "destroyed Sears."

D'Ambrosio said he doesn't recognize the Lampert he sometimes sees described by critics.

"I've never worked with somebody who understands business models and how to re-imagine a business model and has a view on the way buying will change going forward better than Eddie," D'Ambrosio said.

It turns out, his image is the thing he's least interested in selling at Sears Holdings.

"I do think what we've been trying to do at the company has been very clear," Lampert said. "If people want to doubt it or put a spin on it, they're entitled to do it. We just have to perform."

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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Magical run for Irish ends in rout

Notre Dame lost 42-14 on Monday.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On a flawless South Florida night, Notre Dame players saw a legend emerge in present time. To their bone-deep disbelief, it was not them.

The eruption of streamers and confetti and joy surrounded them, and their shock and desolation filled the spaces in between. A program lost for a quarter-century might not be directionless, but the top looked far away from here.

A moment the Irish believed they were meant to have ended in a quiet walk out of sight and into another year of what might be. Alabama is the national champion, again, the SEC's marauding run extended to a seventh straight year with a 42-14 humiliation of Notre Dame in the BCS title game Monday, the Irish's first loss also their most excruciating.

Most left the field with distant gazes as the Crimson Tide hoisted newspapers with headlines blaring, "BAMA AGAIN." Nose guard Louis Nix limped off slowly. Tailback Theo Riddick pulled a towel over his head to hide his tears, which then burst forth by his locker stall. Across the room, freshman cornerback KeiVarae Russell tried to laugh through crying he couldn't stop.

Twenty-four years since that last title in 1988, wandering through losses and death and empty promise. When everyone saw the light at the end of it all, what they saw was that crystal football hoisted skyward. It remained far, far beyond their grasp at Sun Life Stadium and claimed by a different reborn college football dynasty.

"They're back-to-back national champs," Irish coach Brian Kelly said. "So that's what it looks like. Measure yourself against that, and it was pretty clear across the board what we have to do."

It was an oppressive deluge of unprepared and nerve-racked play from the start, the most yards (529) surrendered by Notre Dame (12-1) all year and the most points ever surrendered by Notre Dame in a bowl game. Eddie Lacy rampaged for 140 yards, AJ McCarron threw for 264 and four touchdowns and Alabama (13-1) did, basically, whatever it wanted.

Alabama players called a meeting shortly after their arrival in Florida, and some mused that it reflected a fracture in the focus of the defending champs. But the stoicism they demonstrated all week turned out to be determination to kick the ever-loving tar out of the nation's No. 1 team.

"We knew one team would break," Alabama defensive end Damion Square said, "and it wasn't going to be us."

It required only five plays for Alabama to find the end zone. Lacy was the sledgehammer, and it was 7-0 after the longest touchdown drive and the first first-quarter touchdown allowed by Notre Dame all season.

The curb-stomping didn't end. McCarron threw a touchdown pass, then set up a T.J. Yeldon score with 25- and 28-yard passes, then dumped a short toss to Lacy that the junior hauled into the end zone. It was a 28-0 lead, arrived at brutally, with special indifference to destiny and fortune.

"They did not dominate us," Nix said. "We just didn't play our ballgame, man. We didn't make tackles. Everything we did or had lined up should have worked."

In whatever context or interpretation, Alabama was destroying everything Notre Dame built over a brilliant season, stomping validation into a million little pieces.

"It felt like we were sinking in quicksand," guard Chris Watt said. "We couldn't get out of it."

It was 35-0 before Notre Dame at last responded with an 85-yard drive to an Everett Golson 2-yard option keeper, ending the Tide's 108-minute shutout streak in BCS championship appearances. When McCarron answered with another scoring toss to Amari Cooper, all that was left was getting out alive and figuring where to go from here.

After that last title in 1988, the pall descended. Lou Holtz left, and then it was Bob Davie and George O'Leary's resume and Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis' decided schematic advantage. Then Kelly arrived, and there was no definable reason to expect a title run to happen this year, and then it did.

It seemed, regardless of the outcome, Notre Dame might be a fully functional college football leviathan humming along. Then came the mighty Tide and a dent in the validation.

So, yes, the Irish making it this far proved a great deal.

"Nobody had us in this position to start the season," said receiver DaVaris Daniels, a bright spot with 115 receiving yards, "and look how far we've come, so quick."

And yet the Irish absorbing such a bracing setback means they must prove so much more.

"At Notre Dame, you're expected to win national championships," Watt said. "A lot of the things we did this season were just unbelievable. Those were all wonderful things. But it doesn't really mean anything when you don't win a national championship. You can't really win anything else here."

So off they went, dazed and empty-handed. All around them the new college football dynasty celebrated. All around them, Notre Dame saw what it desperately wanted to become.

Off they went, into the tunnels, a brilliant season ending well short of legend. And the Irish would do what everyone before them had done for a quarter-century, and wake up in the morning just waiting to get back.

bchamilton@tribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribHamilton

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Ryan Lochte gets E! reality show

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – You saw this one coming, right? Swimmer Ryan Lochte is getting a reality show on E!

The Olympic gold medal winner – known for his catchphrase “Jeah” (pronounced zh-yah) – will star in “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” The series will follow him as he meets women, copes with the fallout of his mom saying he only has time for one-night stands, explores his interest in fashion, and even occasionally swims.

In scenes shown at the Television Critics Association winter press tour Monday, Lochte was seen going out partying the night before he was due to swim, flirted, and made up words as he tried to explain himself. It was pretty funny.

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The New Old Age Blog: Who Should Receive Organ Transplants?

Joe Gammalo had been contending with pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs, for more than a decade when he came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2008 seeking a lung transplant.

“It had gotten to the point where I was on oxygen all the time and in a wheelchair,” he told me in an interview. “I didn’t expect to live.”

Lung transplants are a dicey proposition, involving a huge surgical procedure, arduous follow-up, the lifelong use of potent immunosuppressive drugs and high rates of serious side effects. “It’s not like taking out an appendix,” said Dr. Marie Budev, the medical director of the clinic’s lung transplant program.

Only 50 to 57 percent of all recipients live for five years, she noted, and they will still die of their disease. But there’s no other treatment for pulmonary fibrosis.

Some medical centers would have turned Mr. Gammalo away. Because survival rates are even lower for older patients, guidelines from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation caution against lung transplants for those over 65, though they set no age limit.

But “we are known as an aggressive, high-risk center,” said Dr. Budev. So Mr. Gammalo was 66 when he received a lung; his newly found buddy, Clyde Conn, who received the other lung from the same donor, was 69.

You can’t mistake the trend: A graying population and revised policies determining who gets priority for donated organs, have led to a rising proportion of older adults receiving transplants.

My colleague Judith Graham has reported on the increase in heart transplants, but the pattern extends to other organs, too.

The number of kidney transplants performed annually on adults over 65 tripled between 1998 and last year, according to data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. In 2001, 7.4 percent of liver transplant recipients were over 65; last year, that rose to 13 percent.

The rise in elderly lung transplant candidates is particularly dramatic because, since 2005, a “lung allocation score” puts those at the highest mortality risk, rather than those who’ve waited longest, at the top of the list.

In 2001, about 3 percent of those on the wait list and of those transplanted were over 65; last year, older patients represented almost 18 percent of wait-listed candidates and more than a quarter of transplant recipients. (Medicare pays for the surgery, though patients face co-pays and considerable out-of-pocket costs, including for drugs and travel.)

The debate has grown, too: When the number of adults awaiting transplants keeps growing, but organ donations stay flat, is it desirable or even ethical that an increasing proportion of recipients are elderly?

Dr. Budev, who estimated that a third of her program’s patients are over 65, votes yes. As long as a program selects candidates carefully, “how can you deny them a therapy?” she asked. So the Cleveland Clinic has no age limit. “We feel that everyone should have a chance.”

At the University of Michigan, by contrast, the age limit remains 65, though Dr. Kevin Chan, the transplant program’s medical director, acknowledged that some fit older patients get transplanted.

“You can talk about this all day — it’s a tough one,” Dr. Chan said. Younger recipients have greater physiologic reserve to aid in the arduous recovery; older ones face higher risk of subsequent kidney failure, stroke, diabetes and other diseases, and, of course, their lifespans are shorter to begin with.

Donated lungs, fragile and prone to injury, are a particularly scarce commodity. Last year, surgeons performed 16,055 kidney transplants, 5,805 liver transplants and 1,949 heart transplants. Only1,830 patients received lung transplants.

“What if there’s a 35-year-old on a ventilator who needs the lung just as much?” Dr. Chan said. “Why should a 72-year-old possibly take away a lung from a 35-year-old?” Yet, he acknowledged, “it’s easy to look at the statistics and say, ‘Give the lungs to younger patients.’ At the bedside, when you meet this patient and family, it’s a lot different.”

These questions about who deserves scarce resources — those most likely to die without them? or those most likely to live longer with them? — will persist as the population ages. They’re also likely to arise when the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation begins working towards revised guidelines this spring. (I’d also like to hear your take, below.)

Lots of 65- and 75-year-olds are very healthy. Yet transplants themselves can cause harm and there’s no backup, like dialysis. Without the transplant, they die. But when the transplant goes wrong, they also die.

More than four years post-transplant, the Cleveland Clinic’s “lung brothers” are success stories. Mr. Conn, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, can’t walk very far or lift more than 10 pounds, but he works part time as a real-estate appraiser and enjoys cruises with his wife.

Mr. Gammalo, a onetime musician, has developed diabetes, like nearly half of all lung recipients. But he went onstage a few weeks back to sing “Don’t Be Cruel” with his son’s rock band, “a highlight of both our lives,” he said.

Yet when I asked Mr. Conn, now 73, how he felt about having priority over a younger but healthier person, he paused. “It’s a good question,” he said, to which he had no answer.

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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Sears CEO D'Ambrosio to step down

Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday night that Chief Executive Officer Louis D'Ambrosio will step down Feb. 2, due to family health matters, and Chairman Edward Lampert will add the role of CEO.

The surprise move fuels uncertainty at the Hoffman Estates-based company, which has struggled for years to re-establish itself as a department store in an ultracompetitive retailing industry dominated by low-price giant Wal-Mart and big box and specialty stores.

The decision by Lampert, a hedge fund operator who is the company's biggest shareholder, to take over day-to-day control represents a reversal from his naming of D'Ambrosio as chief executive nearly two years ago after operating with an interim CEO.

"In light of Lou's decision to step down, the board feels it is important that there is continuity of leadership during this important period of transformation and improvement at Sears Holdings," Lampert said in a statement. "I have agreed to assume these additional responsibilities in order to continue the company's recovery and sustain the momentum we are experiencing, as well as further the development of the management team under the distributed leadership model, which provides our business unit leaders with greater control, authority and autonomy."

Sears Holdings, which operates Sears and Kmart, also updated its fourth-quarter earnings outlook Monday night. The company said it expects to report a net loss $280 million to $360 million, or $2.64 to $3.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ending Feb. 2. The loss includes a charge of about $450 million because of pension settlements and an additional $42 million in pension expenses.

Excluding pension expenses, Sears said it expects to earn $132 million to $212 million, or $1.25 to $2 per share.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had been expecting adjusted net income of about $137 million.

For the fiscal year, Sears said it expects to lose $721 million to $801 million, or $6.80 to $7.56 per diluted share, which includes pension-related costs and other adjustments reported late last year. Excluding those items, the company said it expects to lose $123 million to $203 million, or $1.16 to $1.92 per share.

D'Ambrosio became CEO after working for the company as a consultant. The 16-year veteran of IBM Corp. had been CEO of a telecommunications company before joining Sears.

"I have worked very closely with Eddie over the past two years. I can say this: there is simply no one in the world that cares more about Sears Holdings and has thought more deeply about our company than Eddie," D'Ambrosio wrote to employees.

Lampert gained control of Sears in 2005 after engineering the merger between Kmart and Sears Roebuck & Co. For years, speculation about Lampert's intentions for the company focused on the value of its real estate, but under D'Ambrosio, Sears appeared to pay more attention to retail aspirations.

The company reported improved performance — it beat Wall Street expectations — in the previous quarter, but Sears stock has lost more than 35 percent of its value since November, closing Monday at $42.92, up 1.7 percent.

 Crshropshire@tribune.com

Twitter: @corilyns 

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Police: Good Samaritans foil North Side robbery

Jose Rodriguez, 30. (Chicago Police Department / January 6, 2013)

By Adam Sege




Tribune reporter

10:40 p.m. CST, January 6, 2013

A screwdriver-wielding parolee was tackled by two good Samaritans after he stole a woman's purse in the Lincoln Park neighborhood Saturday night, police said.

About 11:45 p.m., Jose Rodriguez, 30, approached a woman from behind in the 800 block of West Diversey Parkway, the Chicago Police Department said in a news release. 

Rodriguez held an arm around the 29-year-old woman's neck, placed a screwdriver against her torso, and demanded money, police said.

Rodgriguez ran off with the woman's purse shortly after, police said.

A 20-year-old witness took off in pursuit, and when Rodriguez approached a 24-year-old man walking in the opposite direction, the 20-year-old yelled for him to stop the robber, police said.

Together, the men tackled Rodriguez and restrained him until police showed up, police said.

Rodriguez was arrested and charged with armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and a parole violation.

asege@tribune.com

Twitter: @AdamSege

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