A young man died shielding his mother from bullets


A man was on a porch with his mother in Chicago on Saturday when a man approached and opened fire. James Jones, 21, put his body between the bullets, supposedly meant for him, and his mother, Alicia Jones.
"I'm just glad it wasn't my wife (who died)," Alicia Jones' husband, Larry Means, told the Chicago Tribune of the shooting police are saying was gang-related. "I'm just glad it wasn't my grandbaby, 'cause he was in the house too."
Alicia Jones, who was taken to the hospital Saturday in critical condition, has now lost three children to violence in Chicago.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
-
Icarus programme – the ‘internet of animals’
The Explainer Researchers aim to monitor 100,000 animals worldwide with GPS trackers, using data to understand climate change and help predict disasters and pandemics
-
Experience Tanzania’s untamed wilderness from Lemala’s luxury lodges
The Week Recommends The vast protected landscapes are transformed into a verdant paradise during ‘emerald season’
-
Crossword: October 9, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan church
Speed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
3 officers killed in Pennsylvania shooting
Speed Read Police did not share the identities of the officers or the slain suspect, nor the motive or the focus of the still-active investigation
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school mass
Speed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Trump lambasts crime, but his administration is cutting gun violence prevention
The Explainer The DOJ has canceled at least $500 million in public safety grants
-
Aimee Betro: the Wisconsin woman who came to Birmingham to kill
In the Spotlight US hitwoman wore a niqab in online lover's revenge plot
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murders
speed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bail
Speed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambush
Speed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived