Politics
City Poised to Pay $500K to 2 Women Severely Injured During Police Chase That Killed 2
(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers should pay $500,000 to two women who were seriously injured when a car being pursued by police crashed into their vehicle, city lawyers recommended, the latest settlement prompted by police pursuits that violated department policy.
Mileidy Tejada Rivera and Helen Francisco were injured at 9:20 p.m. June 8, 2019, when their Honda CRV was struck head-on by a red Kia Optima that had fled a traffic stop in Austin, according to an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, better known as COPA.
A tactical team of officers driving an unmarked SUV attempted to stop the Kia after it failed to obey a stop sign. Police had just observed a group of people they believed to be associated with a street gang and Jaquan Shockley, 17, who officers believed to be wanted on charges of attempting to kill a Cook County sheriff’s deputy.
However, Shockley was facing charges in juvenile court that he violated his probation by failing to appear in court. Shockley had been convicted of possessing a stolen motor vehicle and had been accused of driving that vehicle in the direction of a Cook County sheriff's deputy, according to COPA.
“Officer (Lukasz) Gorski’s only basis for suspecting that (Shockley) had an active warrant on the date of the pursuit was through word of mouth amongst tactical teams” and took no action to verify whether Shockley was still wanted by police in connection with an incident that took place nine months before the pursuit, according to COPA.
Officers attempted to stop the Kia after they identified Shockley as the car’s driver at a red light at Lavergne and Chicago avenues, after he failed to obey the stop sign.
Shockley and Marquise Willis, 23, died in the crash after reaching speeds of more than 80 miles per hour during the chase, which officers terminated two blocks before the fatal impact, according to the probe by COPA.
COPA concluded that Officer Lukasz Gorski’s decision to pursue the car driven by Shockley violated department policy and did not meet the required “balancing test” that requires officers to determine whether “the necessity to immediately apprehend the fleeing suspect outweighs the level of inherent danger created by a motor vehicle pursuit,” according to COPA.
“Officer Gorski bears the responsibility for initiating and continuing a vehicle pursuit based on false, unverified rumors,” COPA found. “Officer Gorski’s poor judgment and decision-making set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the deaths of two people and caused serious injury to three innocent civilians.”
COPA urged former Chicago Police Supt. David Brown to suspend Gorski for at least 180 days or fire him.
Brown agreed to suspend Gorski for 180 days, although it is not clear whether Gorski served that suspension. Gorski remains a member of the Chicago Police Department, earning $111,800 annually, according to a city database.
The proposed settlement is set to be considered Monday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. A final vote of the City Council could come Nov. 14.
CPD changed its vehicle pursuit policy in 2020 and then again in 2022 to require officers to “consider the need for immediate apprehension of an eluding suspect and the requirement to protect the public from the danger created by eluding offenders.”
Marked police cars, with their lights and sirens activated, must also take the lead in pursuits, after immediately notifying a dispatcher in the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, according to the policy.
In all, 11 cases alleging Chicagoans were hit or killed during a police chase that violated department policy cost taxpayers more than $82.5 million to resolve between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, according to WTTW News’ analysis.
Chicago taxpayers have spent $189.9 million since 2019 to resolve 88 lawsuits involving people who were injured or on behalf of those killed during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
