Family Of Man Fatally Shot By Police Accuses Officers Of Changing Their Accounts
(CBS) -- Another deadly police shooting in Chicago is under investigation by federal authorities.
An officer shot and killed Esau Castellanos back in 2013. As CBS 2'S Vince Gerasole reports, his family says the officers involved have continually altered their accounts of what happened.
The children of Esau Castellanos still grieve. The pizza delivery driver and father of three was killed in a fatal Chicago Police shooting that nearly three years later has become the subject of an FBI investigation.
"It's very simple: they shot and killed a guy and they want to stay out of trouble and they are going to say whatever necessary to keep themselves out of jail," said attorney Dan O'Connor.
Original reports indicate Castellano was speeding away from officers when he crashed on the Northwest Side and opened fire forcing officers Shawn Lawryn and Juan Martinez to shoot 19 times, three bullets were fatal.
"He was a good person," said Michelle Castellanos, Esau's daughter. "He never had a gun."
Subsequent police reports seem to verify that, because no gun was reportedly found on Castellanos. Martinez, who said he was shot in the head, only suffered bruises, and last fall, during the family's civil suit depositions, officers indicated for the first time a second person may have been in the car with Castellanos and fled the scene.
"I am not sure if there was another individual in the car, there might have been," Martinez said.
Upon learning of the FBI civil rights investigation, Superintendent John Escalante placed the officers on administrative duty as his children seek justice.
"To make up scenarios where there is a phantom guy that you let go into the neighborhood as if that's some kind of excuse, that's ridiculous," said O'Connor.
Dashcam video might solve some of the discrepancies in this case, but the officer's unmarked car was not required to have one and the camera in a following cruiser was not working.
Almost three years after the fact, the incident remains under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority and the Cook County State's Attorney is assisting in the federal investigation.
