2 Investigators: Chicago Cop Shoots Teen During Curfew Confrontation
(CBS) – There are more questions about Chicago police and the use of deadly force.
A North Side teen was stopped for a curfew violation and ended up shot twice by a Chicago police officer. The high school student survived the shooting 2 ½ years ago. He tells his story to CBS 2's Dave Savini.
What should have been a routine stop -- no weapons or major crime -- instead escalated and could have become deadly for Richard Skibicki.
"I don't think he had any reason to shoot me, which was exactly excessive force," he says.
Skibicki was a 16-year-old Lincoln Park High School sophomore when he was shot by a Chicago police officer.
"The bullet in my leg was two centimeters away from my major artery," he says.
The bullet is still in his leg. He also was struck in the arm and a third shot missed him.
It began in 2013 with a midnight snack run at Narragansett and Montrose. According to a lawsuit Skibicki filed, he was walking with friends, past his curfew, when police asked for his identification. He did not have it and says that enraged one officer who began screaming at him.
"He was like an inch away from my face," Skibicki says. "I was horrified."
He also was frightened by what he says the officer screamed at him: "How am I supposed to identify your dead body if I find you on the streets?"
"After yelling at me, I took off running down this alley," Skibicki says.
He says he was shot while trying to climb a fence.
The shooting victim says he was unarmed, but at the time of the incident, Chicago police officials said Skibicki swung a wooden board, posing a threat. Skibicki denies that.
"He's not just going to say he shot me for running away," Skibicki says.
Attorney Lance Northcutt, who filed a lawsuit for Skibicki, says police fabricated the board story.
"It just doesn't add up. It did not happen," said Northcutt, who believes a board was planted at the scene. "There has to be some explanation as to why you just shot a curfew violator, twice, who's unarmed."
He points to an evidence photo of the board. The board sits in a perfectly straight line, parallel to the sidewalk. It was not tossed about.
Skibicki was just a few blocks from home when this occurred. He says his running was stupid.
"I admit that, but I think it was stupid of him to shoot me," Skibicki says.
Charges against Skibicki were vacated by a judge.
Two years after the shooting, the officer, Edward Acevedo, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA). An IPRA official had no comment to questions about the positioning of that wooden board.
Chicago Police had no comment other than to refer CBS 2 to IPRA.
