“Following the release of autopsy results from the Cook County Medical Examiner this morning, Johnson spent hours behind closed doors at police headquarters Saturday getting briefed on the results and rereviewing video evidence with Department officials”, Guglielmi said in a statement Saturday.
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The officers may have violated departmental polices in the shooting of Paul O’Neal, 18, of Chicago, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday in explaining why Superintendent Eddie Johnson relieved the officers of their police powers. Officers tried to stop the vehicle near 74th Street and Merrill Avenue, but the driver sideswiped a Chicago Police auto and another vehicle parked nearby, police said.
The move comes as Chicago Police face harsh criticism for past police-involved shootings, including the 16-shot slaying of teenager Laquan McDonald, a shooting caught on a squad vehicle dash-cam camera that led to angry protests in the streets. Escalante says at least two officers fired their weapons.
The two of the officers involved in the shooting have been relieved from their police powers and been suspended. The convertible Jaguar was stolen from Bolingbrook earlier in the evening.
Police said three officers shot Paul O’Neal Thursday night after he sideswiped a patrol vehicle and hit a parked auto while driving a stolen Jaguar, injuring some officers.
O’Neal lived in the 1700 block of East 70th Street, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
On Friday, Chicago Police Supt. Escalante says the officers fired, hitting O’Neal who later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Some officers suffered “injuries during the vehicle apprehension” and were taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, the statement said.
Although a formal investigation is still ongoing, “Johnson has pledged that CPD will conduct a thorough and fact based administrative review”, Guglielmi said.
The handling of officer-involved shootings in Chicago has come under intense scrutiny since the release last November of a video that shows a white officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times.
First Deputy Supt. John Escalante has ordered an internal investigation of the incident, and the Independent Police Review Authority will also investigate the police-involved shooting. They have been assigned to administrative duty while the IPRA investigation continues.
The policy in question is one that prohibits officers from “firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against the sworn member or another person”. Reccord wrote. “Don’t sit here and say, “The police got a thug off the streets” because he is just like anyone else!”
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The officers were wearing body cameras and the cameras were turned on, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
