The fiancé of a 25-year-old man shot to death by an off-duty Chicago Police officer last fall has filed a lawsuit against the department and the officer, saying that she wants to set the record straight on what happened that day.
The incident, which occurred on Nov. 5 last year, sparked outrage and protests after an off-duty officer shot and killed Joshua Beal. The lawsuit, filed by Beal’s fiancé Ashley Phifer, alleges that the officer failed to properly identify himself as a police officer during a confrontation with Beal.
“An off-duty officer wearing a red t-shirt like a crazy man came out of a car,” Phifer’s attorney Blake Horwitz said. “No one had any weapons. This officer started pointing his gun at a group of African-Americans and they fled.”
According to police, Beal failed to comply with orders to drop his weapon, but Horwitz says that the 25-year-old was acting within his rights as a legal gun owner because he felt threatened by the officer’s actions.
“There is a moment at the scene where my client’s fiancé did pull out a weapon,” he said. “They say that he shot the weapon. The officer’s own police report says that he did not fire the weapon.”
Phifer says she filed the lawsuit in order to reveal the truth about what happened on that fateful November day, and to clear her fiance’s name.
“Everything they’re saying about him is wrong,” Phifer said. “He was a good person, and I’m not just saying that because I was with him.”
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The city’s law department did not have comment on the lawsuit when contacted by NBC 5. Phifer is seeking $50,000 in damages.
