Caroline Kubzansky

Caroline Kubzansky covers criminal justice with a focus on violence and its root causes for the Tribune. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and started her career covering the northern suburbs. A graduate of the University of Illinois-Springfield's Public Affairs Reporting Program and the University of Chicago, she is a committed Chicago partisan and a native of Washington, D.C.

Members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership pray around Sister Alicia Gutierrez before three of them were led inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview to administer ashes for Ash Wednesday on Feb. 18, 2026. At left is the Rev. Paul Keller and second left is the Rev. Leandro Fossa. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Screws tightening for immigrant detainees swept up in Operation Midway Blitz as arrests continue

February 23, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Those arrested during and after Operation Midway Blitz are facing a rapidly shifting legal and administrative landscape with fewer and narrower paths to securing legal status and continuing their lives...

A still image from a video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability shows a group of Chicago police officers surrounding a vehicle driven by Dexter Reed, 26, moments before an "exchange of gunfire" in which Reed was fatally shot on March 21, 2024, on the West Side. (Chicago Police Department)

Officers in Dexter Reed shooting largely cleared of wrongdoing, records show

February 11, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.

The Chicago police officers involved in the March 2024 shooting of Dexter Reed were largely cleared of wrongdoing by investigators with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, city records show.

Federal agents use tear gas and smoke on community members and activists while they protest near the 3900 block of South Kedzie Avenue on Oct. 4, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Another Operation Midway Blitz protest case evaporates in federal court

February 11, 2026 at 1:36 p.m.

A judge has dismissed yet another set of Operation Midway Blitz-related charges, this time against against a man who had been accused of resisting or impeding federal agents during the...

Body camera video shows Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum driving in evidence made public from the federal investigation into Marimar Martínez, who was shot five times and wounded by Exum on Oct. 4, 2025, following a traffic crash at 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue. Assault charges against Martínez were dismissed on Nov. 20, 2025. (U.S. attorney's office)

Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino praised agent after shooting Marimar Martínez in Chicago, evidence shows

February 10, 2026 at 11:06 p.m.

A trove of evidence was released Tuesday in the controversial shooting of Marimar Martinez by a Border Patrol agent at the height of Operation Midway Blitz last October, including a...

A police officer walks through the scene where multiple teens were shot outside the Chicago Theatre on Nov. 21, 2025. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Boy, 17, charged in Loop mass shooting following Christmas tree lighting

February 5, 2026 at 1:33 p.m.

Authorities have accused a 17-year-old boy of wounding seven teenagers just outside the Chicago Theatre last November in a mass shooting that renewed citywide discussions about how to best manage...

Chicago police process a shooting scene around a burned vehicle Feb. 3, 2026, in the parking lot of a White Castle restaurant on the city's Near West Side. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Police probe link between West Side shootings, possible gang involvement

February 4, 2026 at 7:28 p.m.

Detectives were investigating possible links between a pair of shootings that wreaked havoc up and down the Near West Side Tuesday afternoon, where the same group of gunmen in a...

2 arrested after 12-year-old boy grazed by gunfire in Austin, police report says

February 4, 2026 at 9:01 a.m.

Two people were arrested after a 12-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to his head while traveling with his family on the West Side.

Marimar Martínez, who was shot five times by an immigration enforcement agent in Chicago, testifies during a public forum on the violent use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents, held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty)

‘It seemed like time stopped’: Marimar Martinez recounts shooting by immigration agent at Washington forum

February 3, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

Marimar Martinez’s testimony comes after weeks of blowback against the immigration enforcement raids that have rattled cities like Chicago.

Chicago police process a shooting scene around a burned vehicle on Feb. 3, 2026, in the parking lot of a White Castle restaurant on the city's Near West Side. Two people were killed and a third was wounded at the site. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

2 killed, 1 injured in shooting that caused vehicle fire on Near West Side

February 3, 2026 at 8:32 p.m.

The daylight shooting occurred in a parking lot in the 2300 block of West Roosevelt Road around 1:20 p.m., police said.

People attend a vigil for Alex Pretti outside the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on Jan. 28, 2026, in Chicago. Federal immigration officers shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, in Minneapolis. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Still reeling from Operation Midway Blitz, Chicago casts wary eye toward Minneapolis

February 1, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Agents efforts in Minnesota have mirrored what many in Chicago saw: parents in reflective vests outside schools, cars left abandoned with their doors open and drivers missing, dark SUVs screaming...

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