(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers are set to pay $2.25 million to the family of a teen who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer after a foot chase in August 2014.
The City Council’s Finance Committee voted 21-5 on Monday to endorse the settlement, which now heads to a final vote at the full City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
In all, the City Council will consider paying $52.7 million to resolve four lawsuits that allege a wide range of police misconduct. The city’s insurance company is set to pay $25 million of that total.
The cost to taxpayers approved Monday by the Finance Committee is equivalent to more than a third of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.
Roshad McIntosh, 19, was shot and killed by an officer on Aug. 24, 2014, in the 2800 block of west Polk Street. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency charged with investigating police misconduct known as COPA, found McIntosh pointed a handgun at an officer.
McIntosh was shot after a brief foot chase prompted by a tip that he was in a group of people that included several people who were armed.
Pedestrian and traffic stops have been a flashpoint in the half-dozen serious efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department, since they put officers in close contact with Chicagoans, often under tense circumstances.
Since June 2023, Chicago taxpayers have paid at least $3 million to resolve lawsuits that involved foot chases.
McIntosh was shot twice in the abdomen by Officer Robert Slechter, who earns $125,580 annually working as a detective. Two probes, one by COPA and one by the Independent Police Review Agency, cleared Slechter of wrongdoing.
However, COPA urged that that another officer at the scene be fired after his statement to police officials was contradicted by surveillance footage. That officer, Saharat Sampim, resigned before the Chicago Police Board could decide whether to fire him.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
