Spat over fat led to workplace killing in Hampshire, police say
What led an employee at a Hampshire meatpacking plant to, according to police, throw a knife into a co-worker's chest earlier this month, killing the man in one of the stranger and tragic workplace deaths we've heard about?
Fat.
According to police reports we obtained this week, victim Ai Moo Say had for days thrown chunks of beef fat at Ler Mu Htoo, 24, of Rockford.
The two men shared a cutting table at the Malcolm Meats/Buckhead Beef meatpacking plant.
Co-workers and plant managers told police they believed the pair got along well and had no known disagreements. But Htoo said that for about a week leading up to the fateful day, Say began pelting him with pieces of fat cut from beef, police reports state.
The last straw came Aug. 2 when, according to reports, Say threw a piece of fat that hit Htoo below the belt.
Htoo told police he responded by raising his 6-inch cutting knife and motioning as if he were going to throw it at Say. The knife slipped, he said, and struck the 22-year-old Rockford man, rupturing his heart and aorta, reports state.
A co-worker backs up his assertion it was an accident, reports say.
Prosecutors seem to agree, as Htoo faces a change of involuntary manslaughter, not murder. He's free on $10,000 bail pending a Sept. 29 appearance in Kane County court.
FBI boss retiring
After nearly two years leading the FBI's Chicago office, Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Anderson is retiring from the bureau at the end of September. He's leaving for warmer pastures in Phoenix, where he'll work in corporate security.
We asked Anderson this week for his thoughts on the challenges faced by suburban law enforcement and how much the violence in Chicago affects communities surrounding the city.
"There's a fair amount of crossover, with individuals who live in Chicago committing violent crimes in the suburbs and vice-versa," he said. "The boundaries are obviously very superficial. One community rolls into the next."
Anderson, whose 22-year FBI career has seen him lead the agency's Public Corruption Unit in Washington and its New Orleans office, said the city and suburbs also share a connection through the "Heroin Highway." That's the stretch of the Eisenhower Expressway suburban opiate users travel to buy drugs on the West Side of Chicago.
One of the biggest difficulties facing suburban cops is the sheer number of departments, he said. That makes it challenging for agencies to share information about criminal elements at work in multiple towns.
Those difficulties can be somewhat offset through multiagency task forces, working groups and other entities that build relationships and networks between departments.
"You want to get as many departments as possible under one tent," he said.
The search for Tammy's killer
It's been a long 25 years since the kidnapping and murder of college student Tammy Zywicki along a central Illinois interstate captured national attention, but state police and the FBI say they haven't given up on finding her killer.
The 21-year-old was driving from her home in New Jersey to the campus of Grinnell College in Iowa, with a stop in Evanston along the way to drop off her brother at Northwestern University.
Tammy was last seen the afternoon of Aug. 23, 1992, after her car broke down on Interstate 80 in downstate LaSalle County. Witnesses later recalled a semitrailer truck near Tammy's vehicle. Its driver was described as a white man between 35 and 40, more than 6 feet tall, with dark, bushy hair.
Nine days layer, Tammy's body was found along Interstate 44 in rural Lawrence County, Missouri. She had been stabbed to death.
Authorities say her case remains active. They're exploring new leads and retesting pieces of evidence - they say they've collected more than 200 items - with modern DNA technology.
They also say some of Tammy's items are known to be missing - possibly taken by her killer - including a Lorus brand musical wrist watch that plays "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," with a green umbrella on its face and a green band, and a red and white soccer patch monogrammed with "St. Giles Soccer Club, Greenville, South Carolina."
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading them to the killer. Anyone with information is asked to call state police at (815) 726-6377 or the FBI Chicago Field Division at (312) 421-6700. Callers may remain anonymous.
Academia de Policía Ciudadana
Add Wheeling to the growing list of suburbs offering a citizen's police academy to its Spanish-speaking residents.
Wheeling police officers who speak Spanish will lead the nine-week academy, which begins Sept. 14, at the police department. As with the English version, the academy will cover a variety of police work, including patrol and traffic enforcement, community relations, forensics and criminal investigations.
"This valuable program is offered with the goal of enhancing, through education, the relationship between the Wheeling Police Department and the citizens we protect and service," Chief Jamie Dunne said in an announcement of the new initiative.
Applications are being accepted now. For details, call (847) 459-2645.
The Elgin and Mundelein police department also hold citizen police academies in Spanish.
Car wash for a cause
If you're driving anywhere near Aurora on Saturday, you can make your ride look fresh and help out a good cause by visiting the car wash fundraiser hosted by the Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association of Aurora.
Proceeds from the car wash benefit the Aurora Police Department and its canine units.
It's being held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, at police headquarters, 1200 E. Indian Trail Road. Washes are $5 for cars and $7 for SUVs and vans.
• Got a tip? Send an email to copsandcrime@dailyherald.com or call (847) 427-4483.