Berlin: Lisle officer justified in fatal shooting
A Lisle police officer was justified in shooting and killing a burglary suspect who was trying to force his way into a home, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin ruled Tuesday.
Berlin made his decision after a roughly two-week review of the investigation conducted by state police into the Oct. 10 shooting of Anthony Aguilar of Lisle during an early morning confrontation with village police on the 4000 block of Yender Avenue.
"Every case involving the use of deadly force by a police officer must be carefully and thoroughly investigated. Such scrutiny is required to ensure the protection of the civil rights of those involved and to maintain the public's confidence in law enforcement," Berlin said in a written statement. "After a thorough and extensive investigation surrounding the shooting of Anthony Aguilar by a Lisle police officer, it is my determination that the officer who discharged his weapon, striking Mr. Aguilar once, was completely justified in his actions and that no criminal charges will be filed against the officer."
Lisle police Tuesday released an audio recording of the 911 call that brought three officers to the scene and six dashcam videos, two from each of the three responding squad cars. The videos do not show the confrontation because the cars were parked too far away, but two gunshots can be heard on at least one of the videos.
The officer who fired the fatal shot, Benjamin Bowman, is a three-year veteran of the Lisle department and an Army veteran. Berlin said the shot struck Aguilar in the right lower chest area about 5:20 a.m. after Bowman and two other officers had responded to the report of a burglary in progress.
On the 911 call, a woman who was alone in the house at the time told the dispatch officer that someone was attempting to forcibly gain entry to her home. In the call the woman can be heard telling the dispatch officer, "Could you please get someone here? … My God in heaven, he is here. … I am just very scared. … I am sorry but I have never been this scared before."
Upon their arrival, the officers found Aguilar trying to force his way into the residence. Aguilar was standing with his back to the officers, banging on the door and holding objects in both his hands, authorities said.
The officers, on roughly 10 separate occasions, gave loud and clear commands to Aguilar to "let me see your hands," "put your hands up" and "both of them." Their commands can be heard clearly on the dashcam recordings from one of the squad cars.
Berlin said Aguilar ignored all commands and at one point threw a claw hammer with his left hand at one of the officers. He still was holding an object, later determined to be a shiny metallic scraper with a black handle, in his right hand with his back to the officers.
At that time, officer Jeremiah Arnold armed himself with a stun gun. The other two officers already had drawn their guns.
Aguilar then quickly turned around and took a shooting stance, raising his right arm and pointing his right hand at Arnold, authorities said. The officer, believing Aguilar was pointing a gun at him and that he was going to be shot, fired his stun gun at Aguilar but missed, authorities said.
Officer Brian Brendal, who saw the probes miss Aguilar and also believed Aguilar to be armed, saw Aguilar point what he believed to be a gun at him, authorities said. Aguilar then turned back to Arnold and pointed his right arm toward him.
At that point, Bowman fired his weapon twice at Aguilar, striking him once.
The officers then called radio dispatch and requested medics to treat Aguilar. Aguilar fought with officers as he was secured in handcuffs.
The officers administered first aid to Aguilar until medical help arrived. Aguilar was taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove where he was pronounced dead at 6:17 a.m.
Subsequent toxicology reports revealed Aguilar had THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system at the time of his death.
Deputy Chief Ron Wilke said the three officers returned to their regular patrol duties Nov. 5, while state police still were investigating. He said police are allowing Berlin's report to be the official statement from the department.
But Lisle Chief David Anderson later released a brief statement saying, "We appreciate the professional independent investigation of the incident conducted by the Illinois State Police Zone 1 Investigations Unit and the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office."
The Daily Herald had filed a Freedom of Information request for the 911 recordings and dashcam videos related to the shooting.