$10.5 million settlement for family of man shot and killed by Elk Grove Village, Illinois police

The family of a man who was shot and killed by police in Elk Grove Village back in 2023 has won a $10.5 million settlement, attorneys announced Wednesday.

Jack Murray, 24, was shot and killed by Elk Grove Village police on Dec. 1, 2023. Police at the time said he walked out of his parents' house with a knife in his hand and confronted officers.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office said Murray himself called 911 that afternoon, telling a dispatcher there was someone in the house who was "acting erratic with a knife, and he seems dangerous," and adding, "He is going to hurt someone."

Murray's voice sounded slow and slurred, the State's Attorney's office said. When asked who had the knife, Murray said his own name, but when asked if he had a knife, he didn't answer, the State's Attorney's office said.

Murray's father answered when the 911 dispatcher called back, and he agreed that maybe someone should come and check on his son, the State's Attorney's office said.

Five officers responded with weapons and shields, the State's Attorney's office said. They found Murray walking down the sidewalk with a knife in hand and his parents walking behind him.

The officers ordered Murray to drop the 13-inch chef's knife with a 7.5-inch blade. Two officers fired their guns and shot Murray multiple times, and he was pronounced dead at Ascension Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elk Grove Village, according to the State's Attorney's office.

Attorneys from the firm Romanucci & Blandin said the officers who responded to the 911 call knew Murray had a history of suffering emotional distress, and had undergone crisis intervention training, but failed to use any de-escalation tactics before shooting him.

Attorneys also said Murray was 18 feet away from the officers when they shot him.

The State's Attorney's office declined to bring criminal charges against the officers who shot and killed Murray, Thomas Kure and David Mercado, emphasizing that the knife was a legitimate threat and Murray would not drop it.

But Romanucci & Blandin said Murray's death was preventable, and the officers involved disregarded their own training for someone in a mental health crisis. The law firm said Elk Grove Village police had had at least 26 encounters with Murray before officers shot and killed him, and the other times, they had helped him get transported to a mental health treatment facility.

Many of the officers who responded the day Murray was shot and killed knew him by name, and Officer Kure had responded to prior mental health calls involving Murray, the law firm said. Kure even told a 911 dispatcher that he was familiar with Murray the day the officer went on to shoot and kill him, the law firm said.

The Elk Grove Village Board announced approval of the settlement on Tuesday.

At the village board meeting, which was recorded for YouTube, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said the village was left with no choice but to settle and avoid an "unpredictable" trial. But he repeated that the officers involved in Murray's death had been "completely exonerated by multiple outside agencies in this matter."

"In this village, we back our blue 1,000%," Johnson said at the meeting Tuesday. "The officers were exonerated. That needs to be remembered on this."

But Romanucci & Blandin said the officers involved did "the opposite of what their policy and training required," and had no plan for dealing with Murray other than having each officer carry a specific weapon as they responded.

"They used none of the rapport-building or crisis-communication techniques the Department's policy required, even though the officers admitted they had time to use them, but chose not to," the law firm said.

The law firm also called Mayor Johnson "tone deaf."

Romanucci & Blandin filed the wrongful death lawsuit in May 2024.

Johnson said the $10.5 million settlement will be paid by Elk Grove Village's insurance company, not by the village itself. He said, if the village board had rejected a settlement, the village risked having to pay any potential jury verdict out of taxpayer funds.