Family wants to know if Des Plaines, Chicago police were culpable in shooting of boy
The family of the 15-year-old Chicago boy shot by a Des Plaines police officer pursuing a bank robbery suspect last week wants the Des Plaines and Chicago police departments to turn over video footage, audio recordings and other evidence to determine if the agencies were culpable in the teen's critical injuries.
Lucia Morales and Tom Wilder, parents of Rylan Wilder, filed a lawsuit Monday against Maurice Murphy, who authorities allege was an accomplice in the Des Plaines bank robbery, but their attorney Tim Cavanagh said they haven't ruled out adding police to the litigation.
Suing Murphy gives the family an avenue to ask a Cook County judge for access to evidence that could show who is to blame, Cavanagh said during a news conference at his downtown Chicago law office. The family also could later add the estate of Christopher Terrell Willis, the suspected 32-year-old bank robber from Chicago who was shot and killed by the Des Plaines officer inside a music school on Irving Park Road.
"We just want our questions answered," said Morales, the boy's mother and a teacher in Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54. "We need to understand what really happened on Tuesday night. All I know is that my world has turned upside down. My family's world has turned upside down."
Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner said he's unable to comment due to the likelihood of litigation.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago police spokesman, said that department would release any and all video once the investigations are completed.
Cavanagh said Chicago police have given varying accounts of what happened the night of Nov. 19 inside the UpBeat Music and Arts school in Chicago's Old Irving Park neighborhood.
Chicago police initially said there was a shootout inside the store between police and Willis, and the 15-year-old student intern was struck in the crossfire.
Authorities later said Willis never fired a shot inside the store - and that only the Des Plaines police officer fired his gun.
One report showed there were a dozen casings found, all tied to a rifle fired by the cop, Cavanagh said.
An emergency motion filed Monday by the family's attorney requests Des Plaines, Chicago and state police protect and preserve any and all video footage, including security camera footage inside the music school, as well as squad car and body camera videos. The emergency motion also asks for police radio communications, 911 calls and written investigative reports from the shooting.
"This 15-year-old innocent bystander was shot by a suburban police officer in the city of Chicago. We expect to get this evidence right away," Cavanagh said. "We're gonna follow the evidence. Where that evidence leads, we'll make the appropriate legal conclusion."
The shooting ended an 11-mile police chase that started in Des Plaines, where Willis robbed a bank only hours earlier. After taking $15,500 and eluding police, he stole a car, drove into the city on the Kennedy Expressway, and exited at Irving Park Road, where he shot at police and struck a 46-year-old Chicago officer in the head, authorities said.
The suit says the boy was finishing his shift at the music school just before 7 p.m. when police cars began to speed down Irving Park Road. A co-worker went outside, then frantically rushed back in, when Willis ran inside as the door was closing. Brandishing a gun, Willis ran past Wilder, and police followed and began shooting, the suit says.
The boy's parents rushed to the Lurie Children's Hospital emergency room, where their son was taken.
"No one can ever imagine what that's like to see their child on a table like that," said Morales, holding her husband's hand and fighting back tears during the news conference. "The amount of doctors working on him, the amount of blood everywhere is unbelievable. And throughout this whole experience, Rylan was talking, being so brave and just more concerned about others than he was himself."
Rylan Wilder, who is a student at Lane Tech College Prep and guitarist for the band Monarchy Over Monday, is being treated for gunshot wounds to his left abdomen and left arm. The latter is the more serious injury. He's undergone five surgeries with more to come but likely will never regain full use of his arm, his family says.
The injured Chicago officer recently was released from a hospital and is expected to continue his recovery at home.
Murphy, 32, of Chicago, who authorities say was the getaway driver in the robbery of the Bank of America branch on Oakton Street, appeared in court on bank robbery charges Monday.