Crime & Law

Chicago Park District’s Internal Review of Douglass Park Pool Shooting Identifies ‘Gaps’ in Oversight

The Chicago Park District has released the preliminary findings of an internal review into a June 26 shooting at the Douglass Park pool in North Lawndale, which left one teenager dead and another one injured, and a veteran lifeguard accused of the crime.

Charles Leto, 55, has alleged he acted in self-defense against the boys — 15-year-old Marjay Dotson and 14-year-old Jeremy Herred — whom he said were attempting to steal his bike. Marjay died and Jeremy is recovering from his wounds. Leto is being held on various charges, including first-degree murder.

According to the Park District, Leto passed all background checks, including fingerprints submitted to the FBI, before being hired as a lifeguard in 2023. 

Though it recently came to light that Leto had been accused in 2023 of shooting a neighbor's dogs, in the absence of an arrest or conviction, that information didn't surface during the background check process, Heather Keil, the Park District's general counsel, said during Wednesday's meeting of the district's board of commissioners.

“To date, the Park District’s review has not identified a specific warning that Leto would commit such a violent act,” officials said in a statement.

At the same time, the internal investigation “identified gaps in employee oversight, communication and documentation,” according to the statement.

Several emails, texts and incident reports relevant to the investigation have been posted online by the Park District for the public to access.

These documents show that at least two patrons lodged complaints about Leto in the past. Both involved verbal altercations that were resolved on site by supervisors, and never formally documented in the district's centralized human resources files, which may have escalated disciplinary action. 

One of those incidents occurred at Gill Park in Lakeview, where participants in the aquatics program now have questions about safety, resident Erica Fleischer told commissioners. 

At the same time, documents also detail a pattern of safety issues involving patrons at Douglass Park, where Leto was a lifeguard in 2024 as well. 

In June and July of 2024, Leto told Park District officials that patrons shots fireworks at him, assaulted other patrons and threatened junior lifeguards. 

The parent of a first-year lifeguard, and a North Lawndale resident, corroborated Leto’s 2024 assertions. In an email to then General Superintended Rosa Escareno, the parent requested additional security at the pool, stating that one particular family unit had “shot off fireworks on the pool deck, shot fireworks at the lifeguards, started fights on the pool deck, and have shown increasing amounts of disrespect, racism, and hostility towards lifeguards and other patrons.”

Police reports were filed and security personnel were assigned to the park, Keil said.

In June 2025, a week before Leto allegedly shot Dotson and Herred, the Douglass Park supervisor asked via email to have the pool closed on Sundays due to a “high potential for incidents on that day. … This will cause the lifeguards to possibly have trouble, unless we have security from open until close on Sundays.”

Though the Park District has stated its full support for the prosecution of Leto for “this heinous and unforgivable act of violence,” in response to the findings of the internal review it is implementing a number of reforms to improve safety, strengthen accountability and support staff.

These reforms include:

— A permanent security officer assigned to Douglass Park. The Park District will also work with staff, residents and community partners to develop a localized Douglass Park safety plan.

Resident Denise Ferguson said she's been asking for a community meeting focused on health and safety for years, to no avail, and pushed commissioners to address the lack of staff and programming at the park.

— Expanded safety training for staff “focused on de-escalation, mental health response, trauma-informed care, and active threat scenarios.”

— Continued workforce diversification, specifically the recruitment and training of lifeguards from underrepresented communities.

— Given the mobile nature of the park district’s workforce, in which staff often move between locations, more centralized tracking is needed of verbal warnings and patron complaints to better detect behavioral patterns. 

An additional recommendation is to have staff members at individual parks conduct a risk assessment prior to the start of the summer season, identifying potential safety and security issues and developing a plan of action, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Park District CEO and general superintendent, told commissioners.

“Our work will not stop here,” Ramirez-Rosa, Park District CEO and general superintendent, said. “We owe it to Marjay, to Jeremy, to their families, and to every person who visits our parks to move forward with transparency, urgency, and care. We are committed to leaving no stone unturned and doing everything in our power to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.”

Community members with information relevant to the ongoing review can contact the Office of Prevention and Accountability either via phone at 312-742-5672 or email at [email protected].

This article has been updated following Wednesday's meeting of the Park District Board of Commissioners. 

Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]

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