Politics
Chicago Must Pay $10.5M to Family of Man Killed by Driver Being Chased by Police: Supreme Court Ruling
(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers must pay $10.5 million to the family of a man who was struck and killed in 2018 by a driver being chased by Chicago police after the Illinois Supreme Court rejected the city’s appeal of the latest massive verdict sparked by a police pursuit that violated department policy, records show.
The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday not to hear the city’s appeal means a ruling by Illinois’ First District Appellate Court requiring the city to pay the entire verdict will stand. Lawyers for the city had argued that the man police were chasing should have to pay some portion of the verdict, since he was found to be partially responsible for the crash, records show.
The Supreme Court’s decision to reject the city’s appeal, which will become final in 21 days, is likely to force the city to bear the entire cost of resolving lawsuits filed by the families of those killed or seriously injured during police pursuits that violated CPD policy, regardless of whether the person the police were chasing was at fault or guilty of a crime.
In February, a lawyer for the city told the City Council’s Finance Committee that the Supreme Court’s decision in this case would have a profound impact on how the city handles other pursuit-related lawsuits.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law declined to comment on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to reject the city’s appeal.
Tuong Lam, 61, died in a crash that ended a chase that took place on April 13, 2018, near Devon and Kedzie avenues, just over the city’s northwest border in Lincolnwood, records show.
A Cook County jury awarded Lam’s wife and three children $10.5 million in 2023, finding that officers violated the Chicago Police Department’s 2018 vehicle pursuit policy by chasing a driver who was wanted only on suspicion of a traffic violation in an unmarked police vehicle.
In addition, the officers did not inform dispatchers that they had launched a pursuit, which also violated CPD policy, records show.
Also, officers were required by CPD policy to consider whether “the necessity to immediately apprehend the fleeing suspect outweighs the level of inherent danger created by a motor vehicle pursuit” at the time of the crash. Lawyers for Lam’s family told the jury the officers involved failed to complete that balancing test.
A spokesperson for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability told WTTW News the agency opened an investigation of the pursuit but referred the matter to CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs. A CPD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for information about the outcome of that probe.
Lam died after his car was struck head-on by the car being driven by Jusef Wofford, records show.
Wofford pleaded guilty to aggravated driving under the influence and was sentenced to nine years in prison, records show. He is scheduled to be released in 2029, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The Cook County jury that tried the lawsuit brought by the Lam family heard that the chase lasted for 1.5 miles and reached speeds of 90 miles per hour before Wofford crashed into Lam’s car after traveling the wrong way down a one-way street, records show.
Lawyers for Lam’s family declined to comment to WTTW News. During the trial, attorneys told the jury Lam was a Vietnamese immigrant who came to Chicago to raise his family and lived the American Dream before he was killed as a result of the officers’ reckless conduct.
Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $52 million since the start of 2026 to settle nine lawsuits brought by people who were injured or on behalf of those killed during police pursuits, with the city’s insurance companies paying an additional $9 million, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
An ongoing trial in Cook County Circuit Court will determine whether the city is liable for the death of a 55-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by officers in 2022, records show.
The City Council refused in February to pay $8.25 million to resolve that lawsuit filed by the family of Dominga Flores Gomez, agreeing that the driver police were chasing should be held responsible for the chase — a position that the Illinois Supreme Court appears to have rejected.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
