Aldermen back $2 million settlement for family of man shot and killed during 2014 police chase
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A key City Council panel on Monday backed a proposal to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a man shot and killed by police during a 2014 foot chase, even though the city's watchdog agency deemed the shooting to be justified.
Darius Cole-Garrit was shot and killed by police on the Far South Side in August 2014.
His family claimed the officers who shot him had threatened him earlier in the day at a basketball court at Golden Gate Park near 130th and Eberhart, before nearly running him over with their unmarked SUV outside a friend's home near 133rd and Forestville, and then shooting him in the back as he ran away.
"In fact, they announced their intention to commit premeditated murder on the basketball court, and then they followed through with their threat and executed him in front of his neighbors," the family's lawsuit states.
City attorneys said the officers who shot Cole-Garrit denied ever encountering before seeing him riding his bike near 133rd and Forestville, and trying to question him, because they had received a tip about a week earlier that gang members in the area were transporting guns by bike.
The officers said when they approached him in their vehicle, he got off his bike, turned at them, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at them from a "tactical stance," before running away. Two officers then began chasing him, and yelled at him to drop his gun.
According to city attorneys, one of the officers chasing Cole-Garrit saw him turn and point his weapon at them again, and both officers started shooting, killing him. A gun was recovered at the scene, about 20 feet from Cole-Garrit's body.
There was no video footage of the shooting, as it happened before Chicago police officers began wearing body cameras.
The Independent Police Review Authority investigated the shooting and determined it was justified, but city attorneys told aldermen there was still a risk of a verdict against the city had the family's lawsuit gone to trial, because of witnesses who would have testified to an earlier encounter between the officers and Cole-Garrit, and because there was no video of what happened.
By a 10-9 vote, the City Council Finance Committee on Monday backed the city Law Department's recommendation to settle the lawsuit for $2 million.
Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th), one of the aldermen who voted against the settlement, noted neither officer faced any disciplinary action over the shooting since IPRA determined it was a justified shooting.
The settlement will now go to the full City Council for consideration on Wednesday.
