18-Year-Old Suspect Killed By Chicago Cops Was Shot In Back: Autopsy
(STMW) -- An 18-year-old man fatally shot by Chicago Police officers Thursday night in the South Shore neighborhood died of a gunshot wound to the back, an autopsy has found.
The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Paul O'Neal's death a homicide on Saturday, a day after two of the three officers who opened fire on him were "relieved of their police powers" because they might have violated department policy in the shooting, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
"CPD investigators determined [three] officers discharged their weapons … given what is known thus far, it appears that departmental policies may have been violated by at least [two] of the police officers," Guglielmi said in an email Friday.
Those two "have been relieved of their police powers and will be assigned to administrative positions" pending the outcome of an investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority and an internal administrative review, he added.
The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. in the 7300 block of South Merrill, where officers tried to pull over a Jaguar convertible reported stolen earlier that day, according to police.
The Jaguar was blocked in, but the officers opened fire when the driver tried to take off. He crashed into a parked vehicle, police said.
O'Neal, of the 1700 block of East 70th Street, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 9:08 p.m.
The other person in the car, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested and charged with a felony count of possession of a stolen vehicle, police said Saturday. His court information was not immediately available. It wasn't clear who was the driver.
On Friday, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson "spent most of this afternoon with top advisors and command staff reviewing the preliminary information," Guglielmi said. The officers involved were wearing body cameras, and the police vehicles at the scene had their cameras activated, he said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire copy; Chicago Sun-Times 2016. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
