CHICAGO (AP) – A judge’s surprise acquittal of an off-duty Chicago police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed woman called into question prosecutors’ decision not to charge the man with murder, and set off protests for a second day Tuesday.
That the officer shot Rekia Boyd, 22, was never in dispute. But the judge said he was bound to find detective Dante Servin not guilty of involuntary manslaughter – because manslaughter requires evidence of “recklessness,” while the judge described the act of shooting as “intentional.”
“It is intentional and the crime, if any there be, is first-degree murder,” Judge Dennis Porter said in his seven-page ruling Monday.
Several dozen demonstrators gathered in downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza on Tuesday, some holding signs with a picture of Boyd, to voice distain for the decision by Porter and for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
“Anita has to go,” activist William Calloway said. “We have to band together and make a conscious decision to whom we have to pick to not only represent the police officers, but for African-Americans and minorities across this city.”