CHICAGO — The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released video Tuesday showing two Chicago police officers in plain clothes and in an unmarked vehicle shoot a 23-year-old man in Pilsen, resulting in both officers being hit with felony charges and taken off the force.
Sgt. Christopher Liakopoulos, 43, who has been with the Department since 2001, and Officer Ruben Reynoso, 42, who has worked at CPD since 2003, were charged last week with aggravated battery and official misconduct after the July 22 shooting.
After the shooting, police Superintendent David Brown initially told reporters that after one officer identified himself to the group outside the closed business, one of the people in the group pulled out a handgun, sparking an exchange of gunfire.
Last Friday, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced the charges against the officers at a news conference, and said video of the shooting contradicted the officers’ statements of events. Cook County Associate Judge Maryam Ahmad had set $25,000 bonds for both during a hearing Friday afternoon, and they both were released the same day after posting bond.
The video shows the two officers, who were heading to the Chicago Police Training Academy, happen upon a group of people standing outside of a closed business just before 7 a.m. in the 1000 block of West 18th Street.
The surveillance video — which has no audio — shows the 23-year-old, who is wearing a white hoodie and holding a bottle of wine and a phone in one hand, walk toward the police’s vehicle, waving toward the officers with his empty hand. Suddenly, the man, falls to the ground, and then the two officers exit the vehicle and appear to fire shots toward a juvenile, who had run out of view of the video.
The 23-year-old continues to lie in the street as cars pass by him and one of the officers stands in the street. Neither of the officers appears to render him aid as he lies on the ground for several minutes until additional officers and emergency services arrive.
COPA said in a news release that it has additional video that shows the juvenile shooting a gun toward the officers after the officers shot the 23-year-old man, but the agency is prohibited from publicly releasing video that involves juvenile subjects.
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