Man Dies In Sandwich After Police Shooting

Details are sketchy into a situation where a man died in Sandwich after also being part of a police shooting.

40 year old Bjorn Roland of Plano was pronounced dead last night at Valley West Hospital.  The DeKalb County Coroner’s Office says Roland was in a minor traffic accident in Kendall County which led to three law enforcement agencies from Kendall County being involved in a police shooting.

The death is under investigation by the state police and DeKalb County Coroner’s Office.

Accused Murderer Can’t Make Up His Mind

A Seneca man accused of double-murder looks like he is changing his mind once again on who he wants to defend him.

Keith Mackowiak was arrested in July of 2007 for the beating deaths of Al and Katherine Twardowski in their rural Seneca home.  Investigators think Mackowiak intended to burglarize the couple but it went wrong and he beat them to death with a shovel.

At first Mackowiak wanted to just plead guilty and get the death penalty but soon after accepted the public defender’s office.  After several outbursts and complaints of the public defender, Mackowiak fired them and recently started representing himself using a paralegal to build his case at taxpayer’s expense.

Now it looks like Mackowiak has changed his mind again.  In a filing last week, he asked for a lead counsel from the Will County public defender’s office to represent him.

A decision on Mackowiak’s request could come at his next hearing September 10^th.  In the meantime he’s at the La Salle County Jail on five million dollars bond.

Bureau County Fair Rolls Along

Time for some good old American style power today at the Bureau County Fair.

Tonight’s featured grandstand event is a Truck and Tractor Pull.  The event will start at 6 in Princeton.

Today is Farm and City Day at the fairgrounds.  There are livestock shows, a carnival, kids tractor pull and an antique tractor pull.