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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <b><small><small><small><a
href="http://www.edition.cnn.com/2015/12/08/us/chicago-police-shooting-cedrick-chatman-review/index.html"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.edition.cnn.com/2015/12/08/us/chicago-police-shooting-cedrick-chatman-review/index.html">http://www.edition.cnn.com/2015/12/08/us/chicago-police-shooting-cedrick-chatman-review/index.html</a></a></small></small></small></b>
<h1 id="reader-title">Ex-investigator: Police killing of teen
unjustified <br>
</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Wayne Drash, Rosa
Flores and Bill Kirkos, CNN<br>
December 9, 2015<br>
</div>
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xml:base="http://www.edition.cnn.com/2015/12/08/us/chicago-police-shooting-cedrick-chatman-review/index.html"
id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<p class="zn-body__paragraph"><cite
class="el-editorial-source">Chicago (CNN)</cite>The
police shooting of a 17-year-old on a South Side street
corner nearly three years ago was captured on five<strong>
</strong>cameras and was unjustified, according to a
former investigator who has seen the videos.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Cedrick LaMont Chatman died
just feet from the bus stop where his mother caught the
bus to work every day. The city's Independent Police
Review Authority, which investigates all police-involved
shootings, concluded the shooting was justified.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">But Lorenzo Davis, the
original IPRA supervising investigator on the case, came
to the opposite conclusion and says he was fired in July
when he refused to change his report.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The video "shows a shooting
that should not have occurred," Davis says. "In my point
of view, if you do not have to kill a person, then why
would you?"</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Davis examined the shooting
for months and determined it was not justified. </p>
<div class="zn-body__read-all">
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">IPRA assigned another
investigator and in a new report called Davis "glaringly
biased," saying there was a "significant discrepancy"
between Davis' findings and "what the facts of the
investigation actually show."<br>
</p>
<div class="el__embedded el__embedded--standard">
<div class="el__image--standard js__image--standard">
<div>
<p class="media__caption el__gallery_image-title">Cedrick
Chatman, 17, was unarmed and running from police
when he was shot.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Five<strong> </strong>cameras
captured all or part of the January 7, 2013, shooting of
Chatman: one at a school across the street, two at a
food market and two placed atop light poles by police.
The school video captured the entire incident, according
to court documents. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">A federal judge said
Wednesday he will rule January 14 whether the videos
should be released to the public.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I know there's a lot of
public interest in this, and for good reason," U.S.
District Court Judge Robert Gettleman said during a
brief hearing. "It certainly informs. ... It's
definitely relevant."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The city has fought release
of the videos, just as it did in the <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/27/us/chicago-protests-laquan-mcdonald/">now-infamous
police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald</a>,
who was shot 16 times.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">That officer was charged
with first-degree murder late last month, the first time
since 1968 an on-duty Chicago officer has been charged
with murder in a police shooting. The officer's attorney
has said his client feared for his life because McDonald
resisted arrest and had a knife in his hand.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Facing mounting pressure on
police shootings, the city on Monday released video <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/us/chicago-police-shooting-ronald-johnson/index.html">showing
another officer shooting 25-year-old Ronald Johnson</a>
on October 12, 2014, just eight days before the killing
of McDonald. The prosecutor decided not to pursue
charges in that case, saying Johnson was armed with a
loaded gun and that the officer was not in the wrong to
shoot.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The death of Cedrick Chatman
occurred more than 20 months before those two killings
and raises troubling questions. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">In the police account of the
shooting, Chatman ditched a stolen car and ran from two
officers. As the officers pursued on foot, the 5-foot-7,
133-pound Chatman turned toward them. Officer Kevin Fry
told investigators he feared for his partner's life and
fired four shots.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry said he believed Chatman
was armed. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">It turned out he was
carrying a box containing an iPhone.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"The video supports Officer
Fry's observation that (Chatman) was pointing a firearm
at Officer Toth," the final IPRA report said, adding
that the "use of deadly force was in compliance with
Chicago Police Department policy." </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Davis said the videos
provide a much different account from the police version
of the shooting: Chatman was running for his life and
never turned toward the officers. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Davis grew up on the gritty
South Side and spent two decades as a police officer. He
trained future officers on the use of deadly force at
the city's police academy. He began working at IPRA in
2008, eventually becoming a supervising investigator in
2010.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"If Officer Fry believed his
life was in danger, then his fear was unreasonable,"
Davis says. "(He) should not have taken this young man's
life."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">IPRA found Fry justified in
the shooting; he remains on the force. He has had 30
complaints lodged against him over the years, including
<a target="_blank"
href="http://cpdb.co/data/bXp4Vb/police-misconduct-in-chicago">10
allegations of excessive use of force</a>. The police
department found every complaint against Fry to be
unwarranted. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">In one case in 2007, Fry and
his partner shot a 16-year-old black male in a school
alcove after seeing a shiny object around his waist and
fearing for their lives. The object wasn't a weapon, but
a "shiny belt buckle," according to the IPRA report from
the time. The shooting was deemed justifiable, but CNN
has learned the city settled with the teen and his
family for $99,000. There was no admission of guilt as
part of the settlement. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">In the case of Chatman,
there is one final twist: One of his friends and another
acquaintance were charged with his murder. The two
weren't even at the scene of the shooting when Fry
opened fire.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">CNN sought comment from
police, IPRA and the prosecutor's office about the
Chatman case and the allegations levied by Davis. None
of the offices has responded.</p>
<h3>A storm brews</h3>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The city remains in crisis.
Protesters continue to demand justice for <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/us/chicago-police-shooting-explainer/">Laquan
McDonald</a>. Mayor <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/us/chicago-mayor-emanuel-police/index.html">Rahm
Emanuel faces questions</a> about his handling of
police matters and his leadership. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The accusations of a
cover-up grow louder daily.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The mayor <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/us/chicago-laquan-mcdonald-police-shooting/">fired
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy</a> last week in
the fallout from the release of the McDonald video.
Emanuel also formed a task force to examine the police
department. And on Sunday, he sacked the chief
administrator of IPRA. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">In Washington,<a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/us/chicago-police-justice-department-laquan-mcdonald-investigation/">
the Justice Department said</a> it is launching its
own investigation into the Chicago Police Department to
scrutinize the entire force and determine whether police
policies play a role in civil rights violations. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">CNN analyzed IPRA's
officer-involved shooting data and found that 409 people
have been shot by police since 2007, a third of them --
127 -- fatally.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">That averages to about one
person shot by a police officer every week for the past
eight years and a person killed by an officer nearly
every three weeks. More than 73% of the people shot were
black, the data reveals. Just under 9% of the victims
were white and 14% were Hispanic. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Rarely is a police officer
found to have used excessive force.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The city has sought to keep
allegations of police misconduct out of the public eye.
Over the past decade, the city has spent more than half
a billion dollars in civil damages and fees in
litigation against officers, according to the watchdog
Better Government Association.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">University of Chicago law
professor Craig Futterman fought the city for more than
a decade to release tens of thousands of police
misconduct complaints and recently won. The city
provided him with 56,000 complaints from 2001 to 2008
and from 2011 to 2015; Futterman is still fighting for
all complaints dating back to 1968.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The data the city provided
showed that the majority of officers each had five or
fewer complaints against them. And 10% of officers
accounted for nearly 30% of all complaints. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The data also showed only 4%
of the complaints were deemed credible; just 2% led to a
suspension or firing of an officer. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The data showed that blacks
filed 61% of the complaints and whites filed 20%. Of the
4% of complaints deemed valid, 57% are from whites
compared with just 24% from blacks.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"If you look at the Chicago
Police Department's findings about police brutality and
you looked at where they found brutality to exist, it
would look like it's a problem with middle-class white
people," says Futterman, who played an instrumental role
in getting the McDonald video released. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"When the reality is the
social status of a victim matters. Blacks are most
likely to be abused and the least likely to be
believed."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">How does that play out in
the streets of Chicago? </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The neighborhoods with the
highest crime rates, Futterman says, are the areas where
crimes are least likely to be solved. The trust erodes
in those communities while the code of silence among
police builds.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">And that, he says, is toxic:
"The code of silence isn't just about not speaking, it's
about controlling the narrative." </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Attorney Brian Coffman says
that is exactly what happened in the Chatman case;
police believed he was another poor black kid on the
South Side "whose life is worth nothing."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">In addition to seeking
release of the videos, Coffman has filed a wrongful
death suit against the two officers in federal court.
The officers have maintained they followed police
protocol in use of deadly force against Chatman.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Coffman disagrees. "He was
murdered by police officers," he says. "It raises
concerns of safety in Chicago and people that we trust."</p>
<h3>A mom at wits' end: 'Doing the best I can' </h3>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">CNN examined hundreds of
pages of court records, deposition transcripts,
investigative documents and the autopsy report on the
Chatman case for this story. CNN has not yet seen the
videos of the shooting. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The documents reveal details
of Chatman's young life and the varying accounts of what
happened the day he died.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Chatman's father was absent
from his life. His mother scraped by, working for $8.25
an hour helping disabled passengers navigate on and off
planes at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Cedrick was the youngest of
four children. He went by the nickname Cello. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">He bore the scars of a rough
life on the violent South Side. He was shot in the leg
walking home from a park swimming pool when he was about
15. He limped for months afterward.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Tattooed across his neck
were the names Arianna and Clarence. Arianna was a young
girl who was killed in a drive-by shooting while she
slept at the Chatman home. Clarence was a cousin killed
when he was ejected from a car during a crash. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"You only live once so live
it up," said a tattoo on his upper left arm.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">His mother, Linda Chatman,
tried to make do as best she could. Every Wednesday was
movie night and pizza for the single mom and her four
children, according to her deposition in the civil case.
</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">She talked with her son
about staying out of trouble and keeping away from
gangbangers, according to her deposition. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"Be on time, go to school,
clean your room and do the household chores" was his
mother's motto.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"Don't join the gang," she
told him.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I'm not, Mom," he
responded. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">He earned $25 every two
weeks for doing his household chores. He mowed lawns and
did yard work to bring in extra cash. He kept the money
in a glass jar. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The high school junior made
B's and C's. He participated in ROTC after school. He
had a curfew of 9 p.m. on school nights.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">His mother tried to get him
to go to other after-school programs, but he wouldn't
attend. She often worked 12-hour shifts. She worried
about the hours away, because it left plenty of time for
a teen to get up to no good. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I'm a single mom. I'm
raising him by myself," she said, according to
deposition transcripts. "You know, he's a boy. I'm a
female. I'm just doing the best I can do with him."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">He got picked up multiple
times by police and sent to a juvenile detention center
for an array of misdemeanors, including alleged
burglary, criminal damage to property and trespassing.
His longest stay in a juvenile facility was two months,
his mother said. She said he was accused of stealing
from a neighbor, but the charges were eventually
dropped. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"Why was you doing this?"
she said she told him while he was locked up. "I got to
constantly keep coming up here."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Cedrick responded: "Mom, I'm
going to stop."</p>
<h3>Killed at the intersection</h3>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Officers Kevin Fry and Lou
Toth had a fairly unremarkable day on January 7, 2013,
until shortly after 1:30 p.m.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The two veterans were part
of the tactical team, a group of plainclothes officers
in unmarked cars who focus on crime hot spots. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth had been with the unit
about three months. He'd spent almost 13 years on the
force, almost all of it in gang units. Fry had begun his
career as an officer in April 2004 after stints in
photography and helping set up lights for a film studio.
He spent his first five years on the force with a
tactical response unit that gets deployed in marked
cars. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth and Fry typically had
other partners but were paired together this day.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth drove the unmarked gray
Crown Victoria while Fry monitored the radio and ran
checks on the vehicle's computer. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Two 911 calls came into
police dispatch at 1:42 p.m. and 1:43 p.m. that a group
of teens had attacked the driver of a silver Dodge
Charger and that the car's driver fled on foot. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">A minute later, the driver
of the car called 911 to say he'd been beaten up and
"had his car, shoes and wallet stolen." The Dodge
Charger had Wisconsin plates, he reported.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Officers Toth and Fry were
in the area. They'd seen a vehicle matching that
description shortly before hearing of the carjacking.
Fry had even run a records check on the vehicle. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">But soon, there was a police
radio transmission of a battery in progress; then
another call of a robbery in progress, "which then was
broadcast as a carjacking," Fry said during his
deposition. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth asked whether the
carjacked vehicle had Wisconsin plates. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Yes, he was told.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth and Fry sped off in
search of the car. They soon spotted it and pulled up
next to it. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"This was a felony stop, as
we both believed that this car was just taken in a
vehicular hijacking," Fry said. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth was the first out of
the police vehicle, drawing his service weapon and
ordering the car's driver to show his hands.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I ordered the individual in
the car to put (his) hands up," Toth told investigators.
</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry got out on the passenger
side of the police car, drew his weapon and went around
the rear of the police vehicle. He said he heard Toth
yell at least three times, "Police, show me your hands."
</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth said Chatman, who was
in the driver's seat, reached for something in the car
before darting across 75th Street and between two parked
cars on the other side of the road. Toth was right on
his tail, an estimated 4 feet behind. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Chatman sprinted down a
sidewalk. Toth still gave chase, but the teen was
getting away as they approached an intersection,
according to the officers' account. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry pursued from the middle
of the street, his Sig Sauer .45-caliber handgun drawn.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"As Mr. Chatman approaches
the corner, he makes a slight turn, a subtle turn to the
right with his upper body. I see in his right hand a
dark gray or black object," Fry said. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"It was a small black
object, which I believed to be a handgun." </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Asked during his deposition
whether the object was ever pointed at the two officers,
Fry said, "No."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">When Chatman made the slight
move to his right with his torso, Fry said he
immediately planted both his feet and took a firing
position. He did not say anything or give any orders
before opening fire. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I felt his threat was as
such that I didn't have time to say anything."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">When shots rang out, Toth
was still trying to close in on Chatman. "I slowed my
pursuit 'cause I didn't know where (the shots) were
coming from."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The teenager started to
round the corner but had been struck and he crumpled
onto the pavement, running into a car as he fell.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth said he moved in to
handcuff the suspect while he was on the ground. He
noticed there wasn't an object in his hands.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Toth told investigators he
didn't fire a shot because "I thought I could actually
catch him, you know."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">But he stood by his
partner's actions. "I truly believe," Toth said,
"Officer Fry felt as though this individual was armed.
... With his actions of running and began to turn I
believe that he was in fear of my life and that's why he
just discharged the weapon."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry fired a total of four
shots. Two struck Chatman, one in his right forearm and
the other in the lower right side of his abdomen. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Under further question in
his deposition, Fry was asked again, "But he never
pointed anything at you or Officer Toth on January 7,
2013, correct?"</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry: "Correct."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Asked why he fired his
weapon, he said, "I was in fear of Officer Toth's life.
I was in fear of my own life. And any pedestrians in the
area, I was in fear of their life as well." </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"And why was that?" </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Fry: "Because I believed
that the object that he held in his hand was a handgun."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">No gun was found at the
crime scene. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Chatman had a box containing
a new iPhone. It was discovered near his body. </p>
<h3>Two men blocks away charged with murder</h3>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">While her son lay dead in
the street, Linda Chatman rode the bus home from work.
It took a slight detour because of all the police cars.
Chatter on the bus was ominous: "Some boy just got shot!
The police just killed a little boy!"</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I'm like, 'That's crazy,'"
she said in her deposition. She cussed to herself,
thinking, "Somebody is always getting killed around
here."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">She arrived home to an empty
house. She didn't think too much of it at first. But
soon a neighbor knocked on the door, asking whether her
son was home.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I'm like, 'No, you know
where he is? I've been looking for him.'" </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"And she say, 'Oh my God.'"</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The neighbor paused, before
adding, "I think your son is dead."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Moments later, one of her
daughters called from Minnesota. "She said, 'I saw on
Facebook, Cedrick dead.'"</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The day after her son was
killed, she went to police headquarters to try to get a
copy of the police report. "They told us they couldn't
tell us nothing," she said. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Asked what was her reaction
to that, "I can't recall, but I know I was going off."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">She went to the coroner's
office and identified her son's body. "Just broke down
and started crying, like it's true." </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">She cried for nearly two
months. On her arm, she got a tattoo: "Cedrick."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Neither officer was charged
in the case. "Insufficient evidence of criminal intent
by the officers; complainant had just committed forcible
felonies and was fleeing," Lynn McCarthy, the assistant
state's attorney, said in deciding not to prosecute. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">But two men were charged
with first-degree murder in Chatman's killing: his
23-year-old friend Martel Odom and a 22-year-old
neighbor, Akeem Clarke. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The two ended up pleading
guilty to lesser counts, robbery and unlawful vehicular
invasion, and were sentenced to 10 years in prison. In
exchange, the murder charges were dropped against both
men. The two had each been looking at a minimum of 20
years in prison. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"I do not have the backing
of my office to talk about the case," Caroline Glennon,
the public defender for Odom, told CNN. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">She declined further
comment. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Odom and Clarke were accused
of participating in the carjacking with Chatman, about
10 blocks away from where the police shooting took
place. Fry and Toth told investigators that Chatman was
by himself when they came across the Dodge Charger.</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The law in Illinois allows
for anyone who sets in motion a chain of events that
results in the death of another individual to be charged
with murder. According to the original charging sheet,
prosecutors said Odom and Clarke "without lawful
justification committed the offense of robbery ... and
during the commission of the offense, they set in motion
a chain of events that caused the death of Cedrick
Chatman."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Coffman, the attorney
representing Chatman's family, says welcome to justice,
Chicago-style: "It's almost like a John Grisham movie
here."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Davis, who lost his job as a
supervising investigator, maintains his belief that the
shooting was unjustified and that the videos, if ever
released, will prove him correct. </p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">"Deadly force is the
last-resort measure. You only use that after you have
exhausted all other means of putting somebody in
custody," Davis said. "In this particular case, Officer
Fry who fired the shots, he did not chase Mr. Chatman.
He did not shout a warning. He did not use his radio to
give direction of flight. He simply pointed his gun
until he had a clear shot. "</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">The final IPRA report said,
"It is not reasonable to suggest what an officer
'should' have done from a reversionary standpoint."</p>
<p class="zn-body__paragraph">Davis acknowledges Chatman
wasn't a saint. But snubbing out his life, he said,
isn't justice.</p>
</div>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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