Surveillance video has been released that showed an off-duty Chicago police officer fatally shooting a would-be robber outside an apartment building in Washington Heights on the South Side (video below).
The Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released video of the incident on Feb. 16 that occurred at about 1 p.m. on Jan. 18 in front the 1300-block of West 90th Street, WLS reported.
Surveillance video of the scene showed the off-duty police officer came out of an apartment building to break up an argument that was escalating between a group of people on the sidewalk.
The off-duty officer identified herself as a member of law enforcement, tried to defuse the situation, and told the people arguing to calm down, WLS reported.
All of the people in front of the building dispersed and left the area except for Leevon Smith, who hung around chatting at the officer.
Surveillance video showed that as the off-duty officer turned to go back into the apartment building, Smith reached for the officer and tried to take her handgun, WLS reported.
“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you,” the officer told Smith as she struggled with him in the video.
“You’ve got to kill me then,” he told her, not letting go as they continued to wrestle.
“Watch this,” she told him in the video and then she shot him at close range.
“I’m sorry!” the suspect said after she shot him, but he still didn’t let go of her.
Video showed that the officer shot Smith again and then held onto him by his collar.
“You got me. You got me,” Smith told her.
“I told your dumba– I’d kill you,” the officer told him as she fired a third shot.
The officer yelled at somebody off camera to call the police and continued to scream at the suspect she had just shot.
“I told you I was gonna shoot you, didn’t I? Didn’t I? Didn’t I?” she yelled at the man who continued to apologize to her. “Didn’t I just say I’d kill you…?”
“Baby, I’m sorry,” the suspect replied in the video. “I’m sorry. … I don’t want to die.
The off-duty officer continued ranting at the man as she put him on the ground, and he continued to apologize, the video showed.
“You thought I was playing. I told you I’d shoot you. He tried to steal a gun from me. Call the police!” she yelled.
But one of the bystanders told her to let the suspect go, the video showed.
“This guy tried to rob me and he got a whole surprise,” the officer told the bystanders.
The officer does not appear to render aid to the man she had just shot during any point in the video, WLS reported.
“Damn, I gotta go to work today and your dumb a— just got me in trouble,” she ranted at him.
The video showed that the officer walked back into the apartment building before the ambulance arrived and then went back outside with her phone to her ear, WLS reported.
“Where’d you hit him?” an EMT asked her after the ambulance arrived.
“I don’t know,” the officer told him.
In her report on the incident, the officer wrote that that Smith posed an “imminent threat of battery” and physically attacked her, WLS reported.
The officer wrote that she was ambushed with “no warning” when Smith grabbed her from behind and reached for her gun “in an attempt to disarm her.”
The officer fired a total of three shots, the video showed.
Smith was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center for treatment of his gunshot wounds and died two days later, WLS reported.
The arrest report showed the officer was treated for a laceration above her eye at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, WLS reported.
Records showed that multiple people placed 911 calls about the incident, including the off-duty officer, who told dispatchers “I’m trying to call my bosses, but ain’t no one answering for me.”
“F-k it, I can’t believe this just happened to me,” she said and told the dispatchers that she was a cop and Smith had tried to steal her off-duty weapon.
It wasn’t Smith’s first run in with law enforcement, WLS reported.
Cook County prosecutors had approved felony charges of aggravated battery and attempted robbery against him in connection with another incident one day before the Chicago police officer shot him.
Smith’s family has filed a lawsuit against the officer and the city on Feb. 3 for “excessive and violent physical force” and claimed she “knew or should have known that such force was not necessary in light of the circumstances,” WLS reported.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
Source: policetribune.com
