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| Photo Credit: AP. |
CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago police officers face felony charges for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding an unarmed man during a July shootout on the city’s southwest side that also wounded a second man, authorities said Friday.
Sgt.
Christopher Liakopoulos, 43, and Officer Ruben Reynoso, 42, have been charged
with one count each of aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge
of a firearm and official misconduct, said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim
Foxx.
Foxx said the
officers were relieved of their police powers on Thursday before they turned
themselves in to authorities.
Foxx said
both officers “are being charged with having fired their shots” that wounded an
unarmed 23-year-old man — identified separately Friday through a civil court
filing as Miguel Medina — on July 22 in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. That
man has since recovered and is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
“The victim who was shot and injured in this
incident was not in possession of a weapon, nor did he fire a weapon at these
two officers,” Foxx said during a news conference.
After the
shooting, police said in a statement that two officers who had observed four
people loitering in front of a closed store stopped to investigate and
identified themselves as police.
Police said
one of the four in the group then displayed a handgun and an exchange of
gunfire ensued in which Medina suffered gunshot wounds and was transported to a
hospital in serious condition.
Foxx said
that based on a review of the evidence, including video surveillance footage,
prosecutors believe “the officers involved in this incident did not have
provocation or justification to shoot the unarmed” Medina.
“The
evidence does not support the use of deadly force related to the shooting of
the unarmed victim, and was not lawful,” Foxx said.
Assistant
State’s Attorney Alyssa Janicki said Friday at the officers’ bond hearing that
a juvenile and Medina initially approached the unmarked police vehicle when
questioned by the officers.
The juvenile
ran, but Medina showed both hands to the officers as Reynoso and Liakopoulos
both pointed their guns out the vehicle’s passenger window and started
shooting. Medina was shot in the back and leg.
The
juvenile, who Janicki said had a gun in a satchel across his chest, kept
running before turning and firing shots at the officers who shot back. A
pedestrian near the juvenile suffered a grazing wound.
The officers
were heading to a morning training course and were in plain clothes at the time
of the shooting. Neither had on their police body cameras because they were
going to training, Janicki said.
Prosecutors
later obtained surveillance video from the area.
After the
shooting, Foxx said, the two officers “made representations to legal
authorities, including the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, that was
directly contradicted by the videotaped evidence.”
Brian
Sexton, Reynoso’s attorney, said during Friday’s hearing that his client was
focused on the 17-year-old with the gun and never shot in the direction of
Medina.
Sexton said
that after Reynoso watched a surveillance video of the shooting, he told the
Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the state’s attorney’s office that
he “just didn’t remember” the shooting.
Tim Grace,
Liakopoulos’ attorney, told the judge that the officers were confronted “by an
armed assailant who points a gun at them and eventually fires at them.”
“We are
supposed to see if the police officer’s actions were objectively reasonable,”
Grace said. “We don’t use 20/20 hindsight. We don’t second-guess. We don’t slow
down video like the state’s attorney’s office does.”
Medina filed
a federal lawsuit on Friday against Liakopoulos and the city accusing the
officer of using excessive force and battery during their interaction and falsely
arresting him afterward.
Medina
alleges that he and others were walking when the officers drove up in police
vehicle and started questioning the group. Medina says he showed his hands and
began walking away when Liakopoulos fired shots at him from the vehicle,
striking him several times.
Medina was
treated at a hospital for his wounds and then held for several hours at a
police station, though he was never charged, according to the lawsuit, which
doesn’t say how much Medina is seeking and requests a jury trial.
The Civilian
Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting and has a
deadline of Sept. 22 to release materials related to the shooting, including
videos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.