Chicago suspect's last words: 'I give up. I'm shot.'
CHICAGO (AP) - The last words of a 17-year-old black carjacking suspect fatally shot by a white Chicago police officer in 2013 were, "I give up. I'm shot," according to documents released Friday, a day after the city released video of the shooting.
A bullet struck Cedric Chatman in the side, pierced his heart and lodged in his spine. He died as he was being taken to a hospital. Officer Lou Toth, who was pursuing Chatman when another officer shot the teenager, described Chatman's last words to investigators at the scene.
The information was included in hundreds of pages of documents that the city released Friday.
The officer who shot Chatman, Kevin Fry, consistently told investigators he saw Chatman turn with a dark object, causing him to believe his partner was in danger. Investigators said later the object was an iPhone box.
Video released Thursday that captured at least parts of the Jan. 7, 2013, incident in a South Shore neighborhood shows Chatman bolt out of a car and across a street with Toth on his heels. Chatman scoots through parked cars and toward an intersection. Less than 10 seconds pass from the time Chatman jumped out of the car to the fatal shots.
Fry can be seen trailing behind Toth, aiming his gun at Chatman from a crosswalk and firing as the teen began rounding the corner in front of a bodega.
The footage doesn't clearly answer the questions at the center of the case: Did Chatman, as Fry has said, turn toward the pursuing officers threateningly, and was he holding something that could have been mistaken for a gun?
The events leading up to the fatal shooting apparently began with the beating of a man who had a "side business" selling iPhones that he later claimed were lost or stolen so he could get a replacement, the police documents released Friday show.
The man called police to report he had been beaten, robbed and carjacked. He also told a 911 operator his attackers beat him "with their fists."
"I didn't see any weapon, like a knife or anything like that. There were so many of them. They all came out of the same house," the man can be heard saying on audio released Friday.
He reports that his silver-gray Dodge Charger was stolen. Dispatchers radioed the information, not mentioning weapons, and an officer says his unit is behind the vehicle.
Seconds later, the dispatcher is told and repeats, "Shots fired by police."