2 Chicago officers in fatal shooting are put on leave
They are relieved of powers during inquiry, police say. Slain man died of gunshot to his back, autopsy finds.
CHICAGO — Two Chicago police officers have been relieved of their powers after department brass made the preliminary determination that they violated policy when they fired their weapons in an incident that killed an 18-year-old man.
Three officers fired weapons in the incident that left Paul O’Neal dead after police say he sideswiped a squad car and hit a parked car while driving a stolen Jaguar, injuring some officers about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
O’Neal died of a gunshot wound to the back, the Cook County medical examiner’s office determined in an autopsy Saturday.
The medical examiner classified the shooting as a homicide.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson spent most of Friday afternoon “with top advisors and command staff reviewing the preliminary information from the incident. [Police] investigators determined 3 officers discharged their weapons in the course of their duties and given what is known thus far, it appears that departmental policies may have been violated by at least 2 of the police officers,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in an email Friday night.
The officers involved initially were placed on administrative duties for 30 days per department policy. They now will be on administrative duty but will not have their police powers and will not return to regular duty unless they are cleared by the Independent Police Review Authority and in internal investigations.
After the fatal shootings of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones in December, the department started putting officers involved in shootings on 30-day administrative leave.
The policy also was instituted after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was launching a civil rights investigation into agency practices, prompted by the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
A wave or protests swept Chicago last year after the release of a video that showed Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer, shooting McDonald, a black 17-yearold, 16 times. Van Dyke has since been charged with murder.
Friday night, a group of activists and O’Neal’s friends held a candlelight vigil at the site of his shooting. The gathering of about 200 people briefly became chaotic after a man ran through the crowd and pushed O’Neal’s sister, Briana Adams, 23, who was quietly asking everyone to respect her brother.
The crowd ran in all directions, and more than a dozen officers rushed to the scene. No one was hurt.