City Council approves $5 million settlement for mom of teen killed by Chicago police during 2019 chase
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The City Council on Wednesday gave final approval to a $5 million settlement with the family of a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in 2019, after running away from a car that crashed during a police chase.
With no debate, the City Council backed the $5 million settlement with Alice Martin, whose son Michael Elam Jr. was shot and killed after a chase while he was a passenger in a car on the way to a Valentine's dinner with his girlfriend on Feb. 16, 2019.
The City Council Finance Committee advanced the settlement on Monday, when city attorneys laid out Martin's lawsuit for alderpersons.
According to a federal lawsuit Martin filed against the city, the high-speed chase started after police tried to stop the car Elam was riding in for a traffic violation. The car crashed and the people inside ran, including Elam.
Officer Adolfo Bolanos got out of the squad car that was chasing the car, and shot Elam three times.
"This young man was shot twice in the back, once in the back of the head and the officers never requested an ambulance," Martin's attorney, Jeffrey Neslund, told CBS 2's Brad Edwards in 2020.
Chicago deputy corporation counsel Victoria Benson told aldermen on the Finance Committee that Bolanos claimed Elam got out of the car with a gun in his hand, and the officer believed Elam was pointing a gun at him, and was going to shoot, so he shot Elam.
However, Elam's family has said he was unarmed.
"It is a he-said she-said," Benson told aldermen, in explaining why the city's Law Department is seeking to settle the lawsuit. "The question is whether Elan had a gun at the time."
Benson said while guns were found in and near the vehicle, it wasn't clear if Elam was holding a gun at any point during the encounter, or at the time he was shot.
The family also said Bolanos did not activate his body camera as required, and didn't inform dispatchers of the shooting right away, or request an ambulance until after other officers arrived at the scene.
The legal team obtained body camera video of the aftermath. It was video from the body camera of one of the two officers involved, Officer Guillermo Gama. Other officers who arrived on scene asked about an ambulance, according to dispatch recordings.
Unknown Officer: "You got an ambulance coming?"
Dispatcher: "Negative."
It took more than four minutes from the shooting to order an ambulance. Elam was still alive, according to dispatch recordings.
Unknown Officer: (inaudible) Need an ambulance."
Dispatcher: "You didn't tell us that. We'll get 'em rolling."
Unknown Officer: We have an offender shot."
Dispatcher: "Oh boy. Okay. All right. 10-4."
In the end, Elam was shot three times by Officer Adolfo Bolanos. An X-ray showed one bullet lodged in Elam's brain. The autopsy report shows the other two bullet wounds in his back.
The body cam video showed Officer Gama reaching Elam within a few seconds of getting out of his police car. Elam was already on the ground. It showed Officer Gama feverishly flipping the young man, picking apart his clothes, apparently looking for a gun.
The body cam video did show a gun on the ground, but on the other side of the car from where Elam was shot.
Bolanos, who shot Elam three times in the back, never turned on his camera.
Bolanos is now facing disciplinary charges that could result in being fired from the force. His partner is also facing a possible suspension.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended Bolanos be fired for shooting Elam, failing to turn on his body camera, failing to immediately notify dispatchers of the shooting, and failing to immediately request medical attention for Elam. COPA also recommended Bolanos' partner, Officer Guillermo Gama Jr., be suspended for 30 days for failing to immediately request medical attention for Elam.
Police Supt. David Brown disputed COPA's findings that the shooting wasn't justified, and pushed for only 10-day suspension for Bolanos for the other disciplinary violations, as well as a 10-day suspension for Gama.
This past May, Chicago Police Board President Ghian Forman determined Brown did not meet his burden to overturn COPA's recommendations, and moved to have their disciplinary cases scheduled for hearings by the full board.
The City Council also approved two smaller proposed settlements in lawsuits accusing police of misconduct.
One is a $385,000 payout to Dalila Rivera, who was injured in a crash with a Chicago police squad car four years ago on the North Side.
According to her lawsuit against the city and Officer Carlos Ortiz, she was headed north on Ravenswood Avenue shortly after midnight on Feb. 28, 2018, while Ortiz was headed west on Montrose Avenue. Rivera had the green light, but Ortiz was speeding and ran the red light without having his siren activated, and was not responding to an emergency, when he slammed into her car.
Rivera's lawsuit claims she still suffers from chronic neck and back pain as a result of the crash.
The other settlement on Monday's agenda is a $457,500 payment to Larry Curtis, who claims a Chicago police officer severed his right index finger by slamming his apartment door on his hand in July 2020.
According to Curtis' lawsuit, a neighbor in his apartment building got into an argument with a woman in Curtis' apartment, before the neighbor left and called police. That neighbor told Officer Joseph Scotoni the other woman had "got into her personal space," but that she didn't want to press charges against the woman or Curtis, who she said was a friend who had done nothing wrong. The neighbor also told Scotoni that she didn't know if the other woman was still in the building.
When Scotoni went to Curtis' apartment to question him, Curtis told him the woman was not in his apartment, and that he "was about to close his door and I want you all to have a good day," the lawsuit states.
Curtis' lawsuit claims Scotoni "became enraged and began shouting at plaintiff 'OK, close the door' several times" before grabbing the door handle and slamming it shut, despite seeing that Curtis' right hand was between the door and the doorframe. When Scotoni slammed the door shut, Curtis' right index finger was amputated, and Curtis passed out.
