Killed on Camera

This is a video, with commentary, of a police shooting which ocurred in 2003, several miles from where I live. A man dies on the video, so be warned that you may not want to watch it.



The family of the slain man sued, and the city may pay them soon:

The City of Chicago is poised to pay out $3 million to the family of a man fatally shot by a Chicago police officer, bringing an end to an eight-year dispute over why the unarmed man was gunned down on a South Side CTA platform.

As with all these incidents, you wish you had a few more camera angles on the actual shooting, and you wish you had audio. When the officer shoots, the other 2 men each have an arm raised - but not toward the officer.

The officer at first claimed the shooting occurred because he feared he was in immediate danger. But after the video became public, that story changed:

Then, in a December 2006 deposition, Weems admitted he did not fear for his life when he shot Pleasance and did not believe the shooting was justified. But Weems also "contended the shooting was unintentional," according to a city Law Department news release about the proposed settlement.

Well, accidents do happen. And when your friend is resisting arrest, you should think twice about waving your arms around a nervous officer with a gun in his hand.

Meanwhile, an old question is being raised again:

A South Side alderman on Friday demanded to know why a Chicago Police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man at a CTA station in 2003 — and later admitted he misled investigators about it — was not only allowed to keep his job, but promoted to detective.

Maybe he has been a good detective,
even if his story that day was defective.