Cabbie Helps Cement Case Vs. Accused Cop Murderer
(CBS) – New video has surfaced showing Shomari Legghette seconds after he allegedly killed Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer.
The man who took the video is a cabbie who wanted to help, CBS 2's Pam Zekman reports.
His name is Eddie. CBS 2 is not using his last name to protect his identity. He's from Bosnia and is a 15-year veteran cab driver with City Service Taxi Association.
His cab-mounted camera recorded video of the foot pursuit involving Bauer and Legghette Tuesday afternoon near the Thompson Center.
"What I wanted to do was go run and help the police officer because what I saw was one on one --- maybe wasn't the best," Eddie tells Zekman in a Thursday interview. "If it were two, yes. I wanted to help the police take him down."
After Bauer chased the suspect down a stairwell, Eddie heard the shots that killed the commander.
"Who would have thought at 2 p.m. in the middle of downtown -- that somebody's going to carry and gun and do something like that."
He later captured the arrest of the suspect on his cell phone. Officers can be seen searching Legghette and finding what appears to be the semiautomatic handgun with an extended magazine policy say the ex-convict was carrying.
"So, this taxi cab driver deserves a lot of credit for pulling over and for helping us in our investigation," Chicago Police Cmdr. Brendan Deenihan said earlier this week.
Zekman asks Eddie: "Most people would not have been as brave as you. What made you do that?"
"It was just my reaction at the time," the cabbie says. "The police are there to protect us on a daily basis, and to be just a citizen, yes, I wanted to help him."
The video of the foot chase and audio of the shooting that Eddie captured on his cab's camera is expected to be key pieces of evidence in Leghetti's trial. The police asked him not to share those recordings at this time.
