CHICAGO (CN) — In the late hours of May 18, a Chicago cop shot a 13-year-old Black boy in the back. He survived, but according to a federal lawsuit his mother filed against the city on Thursday, his family is unsure he will ever walk again.
The suit, which names the young teen only as A.G., lists four charges against the city of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department and the unnamed officer for civil rights violations, battery and a failure by the department to adhere by its own stated reform efforts. It also includes three Illinois state law liability claims.
"A.G.’s shooting was unnecessary and would not have occurred had CPD provided its officers with the training that both they and the residents of the City of Chicago deserve," the complaint states.
It lists several injuries A.G. sustained, including damage to his spinal cord, a vertebral fracture, broken ribs and internal bleeding. It alleges that when the officer shot A.G., he was unarmed and had his hands up.
"The bullet in A.G.’s body was fired from the gun of a CPD officer. The officer was chasing A.G. and, according to witness statements, was screaming for him to stop running and put his hands up. A.G. was unarmed and did as he was instructed. But the officer still shot him – recklessly, callously, and wantonly – right through his back," the complaint states.
According to an official statement from the CPD, A.G.'s shooting occurred around 10:15 p.m. in Chicago's majority-Black Austin neighborhood, when police approached an allegedly stolen vehicle wanted in connection with a carjacking in a nearby suburb. When the alleged carjacker jumped out of the car and ran, the unnamed officer gave chase, shooting him in he back and leaving him in critical condition. The statement makes no reference to the suspect's age, but an accompanying news release from the city's Civilian Office of Police Accountability confirmed he was 13 years old.
The shooting occurred about 14 months after Chicago police officer Eric Stillman fatally shot Adam Toledo, another minority 13-year-old boy.
The suit claims A.G. is "the latest victim of CPD’s systemic failures." It takes special issue with the CPD allegedly ignoring the foot pursuit stipulations of its consent decree, a court-mandated reform order for the department issued in 2019. CPD has a dark history of brutality against Chicago's Black and poor communities, up to and including torture, and the guidance in the consent decree was supposed to help curb the worst of these offenses. The department was supposed to implement a permanent reform of its foot pursuit policy by September 2021, but missed that deadline and has yet to meet it.
"It is a story all too familiar: a Black or Brown male shot by a CPD officer. In A.G.’s case, the shooting occurred during a foot pursuit," the complaint states. "Even though the city has known that foot pursuits are inherently dangerous and there have been numerous incidents where CPD officers chased and shot fleeing persons who posed no immediate threat, CPD inexplicably resisted implementing any foot pursuit policy for years."
The suit, filed in Chicago federal court, demands the city and the CPD pay for A.G.'s current medical expenses, as well as caretaking expenses his family may incur in the future.
The law firms representing A.G. and his mother - Hart, McLaughlin & Eldridge and the Action Injury Law Group - did not immediately return a request for comment.
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