Body-worn camera video released Thursday shows that a 20-year-old man "posed no threat" before he was fatally shot in the head last month by a Chicago police officer in West Ridge, according to lawyers for the man’s family.
Two officers responded to the 5700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue late on Dec. 9 to investigate a call of a stolen vehicle and encountered Roberto Calvario Jr., who struggled with one of the officers while inside the driver’s seat of a dark sedan, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the video footage.
Calvario was struck by a single gunshot, and the officer was briefly dragged by the sedan as it careened into a parked car, the video shows. Officers later found a gun in Calvario’s waistband, and COPA reported that a second weapon was recovered.
It’s unclear from the chaotic bodycam videos when exactly the deadly shot was fired.
But attorneys for Calvario’s family said they plan to file a lawsuit, arguing that the video contradicts the Chicago Police Department’s initial claim that the officer fired after being dragged. The attorneys from Loevy and Loevy, a civil rights law firm with a long history of suing over police misconduct, said the car only moved after Calvario was shot.
"Police are not permitted to summarily execute people on our streets," attorney David B. Owens said. "This was an egregious, unnecessary and unlawful shooting by a CPD officer."
The bodycam video shows the two officers running toward the sedan as another person flees. A struggle ensues as Calvario fights to get into the driver’s seat, and the shooting officer appears to fall backward before there’s a loud bang and the car lurches forward.
"I shot him," the officer says in the video. "Oh, man. Oh, my God."
The sedan travels a couple of yards before crashing into a parked vehicle, the video shows. The officers pull Calvario from the car and yell that he’s been shot in the head. The officer who shot Calvario then grabs a shrieking woman from the passenger seat of the sedan and places her next to him in the snowy roadway as the officers began performing lifesaving measures.
"Did you shoot him in the f------ head?" she says at one point. "Are you f------ kidding me? I seen that s---."
It takes about 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene, according to the video, which shows Calvario breathing but unresponsive. Calvario’s family viewed the video Thursday “in horror,” their attorneys said.
The police department didn't respond to a request for comment.
Owens said the video shows "no lawful justification for the shooting" and complained there has so far "been no accountability." He noted that the officer who fired the fatal shot hasn’t yet provided a statement to COPA.
Calvario’s mother, Awilda Ramirez, said the officer "didn’t have to kill my son."
"I want to ask that man why," Ramirez said in a statement. "I want to ask that man why. I want to know why he shot my boy for nothing."
