Video released Tuesday shows an off-duty Chicago police officer shooting an 18-year-old man with autism on the city’s Far South Side in 2017.
The incident occurred around about 5:06 a.m. in the 11100 block of South Hermosa Avenue in the Morgan Park neighborhood on Aug. 13, according to police. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released the video
“Our goal is to not let anything delay this thing another day,” COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy told the Sun-Times Tuesday.
The off-duty sergeant engaged in an “armed confrontation” with the teen, police said at the time.
The 18-year-old was shot in the arm and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition.
Local journalist Jamie Kalven obtained tapes of an officer's 911 call following the shooting in which the off-duty cop says he thought the teen was pulling a gun on him.
"The case is currently under COPA investigation so any and all comments on their investigation have to be referred to them as we have not yet received the case yet," Chicago police said in a statement. "The officer involved remains relieved of police powers pending COPA's investigation."
A lawsuit was filed over the shooting 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union. In a statement Tuesday, the ACLU demanded to know why it took so long for the video to be released.
“On August 13, 2017, Ricky Hayes needed help from the police because he had left his home late at night and gotten lost. Instead of receiving help, an off-duty Chicago Police officer chased and shot him multiple times without even getting out of his vehicle first," Karen Sheley, of the ACLU of Illinois, said in a staement. "As a black teenager with disabilities, Ricky was at a heightened risk for police violence. Thankfully, he survived - but he should never have been shot. The video shows both that there was no justification for the officer to shoot him and that initial stories told by CPD officials about the shooting—that the ‘encounter escalated’—were false."
