Crime & Law

Knife-Wielding Man Hit by 16 Bullets Fired by 2 CPD Officers, Autopsy Finds

Two Chicago police officers shot 58-year-old Timothy Glaze 16 times on Jan. 3 as he walked toward them carrying a knife, according to the Little Village man’s autopsy conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office and obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Glaze suffered wounds in his chest, abdomen, torso, thighs, buttock and arms, according to the autopsy. Alcohol and cocaine were identified in Glaze’s system at the time of his death, according to the autopsy and a toxicology report.

“He didn’t deserve 16 shots,” said Charlotta Pritchett, Glaze’s partner of seven years. “I can’t find any justification in that.”

Pritchett told WTTW News she regrets calling 911 in the early morning hours of Jan. 3 after becoming alarmed that Glaze, who she said was suffering from three different kinds of cancer, was carrying around a knife and refusing her requests to leave her apartment.

“Why didn’t they use a Taser on him?” Pritchett asked. Glaze’s autopsy showed the 6-foot, 1-inch man weighed 137 pounds at the time of his death.

Pritchett called 911 twice just after 2 a.m. Jan. 3, according to recordings released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

“I really regret that,” Pritchett said. “I thought they would help me, not murder him.”

Pritchett said she had an order of protection against Glaze that was in effect at the time of his death but nevertheless chose to celebrate the New Year’s holiday and her birthday with him. Glaze was convicted in 2006 of domestic battery and in 2014 of trespassing at a North Side grocery store, according to court records.

Pritchett told 911 dispatchers that she and Glaze had a fight and that he would not put down the knife he had been carrying around.

Concerned by the way Glaze was acting, Pritchett told WTTW News she sought refuge in the corner of the bedroom and picked up a screwdriver.

“He won’t let me out of my room,” Pritchett told the dispatcher. “He got a knife in his hand.”

It took officers just five minutes to arrive at the Albany Terrace Apartments, a building for seniors managed by the Chicago Housing Authority in the 3000 block of West 21st Place, to respond to Pritchett’s calls for help, records show.

Before the officers arrived, Pritchett left the apartment and sought refuge with a neighbor.

Glaze’s encounter with the two officers, which was captured on their body-worn cameras, began as one knocks on the door of the sixth-floor apartment, which swings open.

The officer calls out “Chicago police,” according to the recording.

The video captures Glaze calling out “Chicago police” before he is visible to the officers. Seconds later he comes around a corner toward the door, according to the video.

“What’s going on,” an officer says.

“Nothing,” Glaze says, as he swings one arm around his back, shifting the knife he is carrying from his left hand to his right hand.

As the officers back away from Glaze, he emerges through the apartment door and raises the knife, according to the video. Seconds later, both officers open fire, hitting him 16 times and grazing him once, records show.

After Glaze hits the floor, officers tell him to stop moving and handcuff him before calling for an ambulance, according to the video.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA, is probing the shooting, and has yet to determine whether the actions of the two officers were justified. Both officers have returned to patrol after spending 30 days assigned to administrative duties, as required by department policy after a fatal shooting, according to a department spokesperson.

Pritchett said Glaze’s death had been “very traumatic.”

“Every single aspect of my life has been upended,” said Pritchett, who still lives in the apartment just steps from where Glaze was killed and is struggling to pay her bills after an online fundraiser stalled.

Police Response Criticized

Pritchett and Glaze’s family blasted Chicago police officials for their response to a call for help about a man they said was “in mental distress.”

Pritchett said Glaze was awaiting tests to determine whether his cancer had spread to his brain, and worried that his odd behavior was caused by new symptoms of his disease, which she said had “ravaged” his body.

Timothy Glaze and Charlotta Pritchett. (Credit: Charlotta Pritchett)

“Timothy was a son, a brother, a friend, and a human being who deserved compassion and care, especially in his moment of mental distress,” according to a statement released by Glaze’s family. “Instead, he was met with violence and brutality that took his life in the most horrific way imaginable. Timothy was in crisis when 911 was called, seeking help.”

According to the family’s statement, officers should have responded “with empathy, de-escalation and the proper training to handle someone in mental duress.”

Barbara Dean, Glaze’s mother, declined to speak with WTTW News about her son’s death.

Members of the Chicago Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team have received specialized training in how to de-escalate mental health crises and respond to calls for help.

Chicagoans who call 911 and tell the dispatcher they are experiencing a mental health crisis or are with someone who is in crisis can ask that an officer with the appropriate training be sent to help, according to department policy.

That program was created by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2016, after a police officer shot and killed 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier after LeGrier called 911 while suffering a mental health crisis. The officer who shot and killed LeGrier also killed his downstairs neighbor, Bettie Jones.

In 2021, city officials began sending social workers, addiction specialists and counselors with police officers in response to 911 calls for help from people experiencing mental health crises.

While that alternate response program, which no longer dispatches teams that include a police officer, was made permanent by Mayor Brandon Johnson, it does not operate in all Chicago neighborhoods at all times of day.

In the 911 calls released by COPA, Pritchett does not tell the dispatcher that she thinks Glaze is suffering from a mental health crisis, nor does she ask for a specially trained officer.

CPD policy requires armed officers to be dispatched in response to 911 calls where there is a report of a person armed with a weapon or the threat of bodily harm.

When Officers Can Use Deadly Force

It will be up to investigators with COPA to determine whether the two officers were justified when they shot and killed Glaze. If COPA determines the officers followed CPD policy, the probe will be closed and the officers cleared.

If COPA determines the officers violated department rules, the agency’s leadership will then recommend discipline to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who can either agree with or object to that determination. A final decision could be up to the Chicago Police Board.

CPD’s use of force policy, last revised in 2023, sets the department’s highest priority as the sanctity of human life. It also requires officers to use de-escalation techniques and only respond with increasing levels of force when “objectively reasonable, necessary and proportional based on the totality of circumstances that the officer was confronted with,” officials said.

Using lethal force, like firing a gun, must be a last resort, in direct response to an imminent threat to the officer, another officer or someone else, according to the policy.

CPD’s policy is more restrictive than state or federal law, which could lead to an officer being disciplined for actions that do not lead to criminal charges.

A final decision won’t come until after investigators determine whether there is a preponderance of evidence, a lower burden of proof than in criminal cases, that officers violated the policy.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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