Report: Less than 1 percent of Chicago cop shootings unjustified

Despite $59 million in settlements and civil judgments against the city in the past decade, less than 1 percent of Chicago police shootings of civilians have been ruled unjustified, according to a published report.

Chicago police shoot a civilian an average of once every 10 days, with more than 100 people killed in the past decade and 250 others injured, one newspaper reported Wednesday.

The newspaper investigated more than 200 shootings over the past 10 years by analyzing records from internal investigations, autopsies performed by the Cook County medical examiner's office and lawsuit depositions. The police department denied the Tribune's Freedom of Information Act request for complete files for cases involving lawsuits, the paper said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond did not return a message left after business hours Wednesday by The Associated Press.

A panel that includes police commanders, representatives of the Cook County state's attorney's office, a police union representative, and one or two investigators from the Independent Police Review Authority decide whether shootings are justified.

The IPRA is now independent but until recently was called the Office of Professional Standards and was part of the police department. The IPRA may take several months to conduct its own investigation, but its recommendations are not binding.

Cornelius Ware, 20, was fatally shot by officers on Aug. 18, 2003, after they pulled him over in front of his South Side home for running a stop sign.

Police thought Ware, a paraplegic who drove by pushing the pedals with a cane, had been involved in a chase earlier that night and ordered him out of his car, the Tribune said, citing records from a civil lawsuit that Ware's family filed later.

Ware's mother screamed from the sidewalk: "He can't walk! He's paralyzed! He can't get out of the car!"

When one officer thought Ware raised a gun he opened fire, shooting Ware five times before reloading and shooting him again.

Police supervisors cleared the officer of any wrongdoing within eight hours. Ware later died of his wounds.

The supervisors did not check the direction of the bullets and did not interview all the witnesses, two of whom said they saw Ware's hands raised in surrender, the paper said. They also did not wait for the autopsy report, which showed two of the bullets struck Ware in the back of his hands.

Michael Oppenheimer, a former assistant Cook County state's attorney, said he attended many panels between 1990 and 2003, but merely as "window dressing." Superiors told him not to ask questions, he said.

"The brevity of the investigation is unbelievable. It's just faulty," Oppenheimer said.

Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine rejected the idea that prosecutors acquiesce in ruling questionable shootings justified. But he acknowledged that assistant state's attorneys may have been unsure about their role in the process.

"I do think a lot of assistants were up in the air," he said.

Edmund Donoghue, former chief medical examiner in Cook County, said he was not surprised to hear of cursory investigations.

"When you see this stuff going on for 30 years, you don't expect much," said Donoghue, who retired last year. "Come on. This is Chicago."