Newly released video from a police shooting last month shows a tense, chaotic scene with officers yelling at each other to stay clear as they fired dozens of rounds at a suspect who allegedly was pointing a gun from a Jeep.
The suspect, facing more than a dozen counts of aggravated sexual assault, was killed during the July 9 confrontation in West Garfield Park.
No officers were injured, despite repeated concerns voiced in the video about getting caught in crossfire as they surrounded the Jeep.
The events unfolded as federal marshals and Cook County sheriff’s deputies confronted Klevontaye White, 34, around 9:40 a.m. in the 100 block of South Kilpatrick Avenue.
White had escaped electronic monitoring and the marshals and deputies had cut off his Jeep in the middle of the block and ordered him out.
He refused and, according to officers on the scene, repeatedly aimed a handgun at them from the backseat. None of the more than two dozen videos from body-worn cameras and in-car cameras clearly show the suspect in the Jeep.
The video, released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability Tuesday afternoon, begins with a marshal and two police officers making plans to approach the Jeep with shields so they can break the back window.
As they get near the SUV, a single gunshot is heard. Some officers on the scene believe it came from inside the Jeep, but it isn’t clear from the video who fired that shot.
There immediately follow a barrage of gunfire in the West Garfield Park. Officers momentarily stop and approach the Jeep again.
Several shout “Stop moving!” over and over before firing more bullets into the SUV.
At this point, a federal marshal and a Chicago police supervisor yell at a pair of Chicago police officers for crossing into other officers’ line of fire.
“Don’t get in front of each other,” the supervisor yells.
“What the f— are you guys doing?” another officer yells at the two.
The two officers, one holding a shield and the other behind him, kept getting in the way of a federal marshal with a shield. When asked to step back, the cop holding the shield pressed forward anyway.
“Dude, calm the f— down,” the supervisor said, pushing the officer back.
“They need a shield, Sarg,” he responded.
“You can’t shield in front of another shield, calm it down!” the supervisor said before asking his partner to escort him from the scene.
His partner pulls him from the back and tries to calm the other officer, who repeatedly holsters his gun and pulls back out.
“He doesn’t listen to me, I’m so sorry,” the supervisor tells the partner later.
Officers struggled briefly to unlock the back door and found White lying across the seat. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and officers pulled him out and began applying compressions to his chest.
A few minutes later an ambulance arrived. White was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A handgun was recovered on the street near the Jeep, police said.
On the day of the shooting, Police Supt. David Brown said White was killed after he brandished a gun. At the time, Brown said it was unclear if White had fired at officers, though cops on the scene were heard on the police radio saying shots had been fired at them.
A Chicago police spokesman didn’t respond to questions about whether White had fired his gun, or whether the officer pulled from the scene by a supervisor was disciplined. He said COPA was still investigating.
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