CHICAGO (AP) – A federal judge again criticized the city of Chicago Thursday for how it dealt with a police-shooting video as he tossed a civil case against one of two officers involved in a fatal 2013 shooting of a black teenager suspected in a carjacking.
Judge Robert Gettleman’s ruling cites video of Cedrick Chatman’s shooting that was unsealed last week and shows that Officer Lou Toth didn’t shoot at the 17-year-old. Gettleman says it also shows Toth could not have stopped his partner, Kevin Fry, from firing the fatal shots.
The civil case, brought by Chatman’s mother, will proceed against Fry. Neither officer was ever charged criminally.
Before allowing the video to be made public last week, Gettleman criticized the city for its about-face – for battling against its release on legal grounds for months only to suddenly declare that it supported the video release on policy grounds.
Gettleman echoed that criticism Thursday and questioned why city lawyers didn’t submit the video with its June request – now granted – to toss the case against Toth. Gettleman offered his own theory: Making the video part of the city’s June motion, he suggested, increased the likelihood that it would have been made public months ago.