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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Officials Discuss Probe Of 2nd Chicago Police Shooting; Dashcam Video Of Chicago Police Shooting Released; Officer Not Charged In Second Chicago Police Shooting. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 07, 2015 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the forth time, there was 45 minutes, says they're shooting upfront.
[12:30:12] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now it's just four or five, and about 10 minutes ago was like about a four or five, about 20 minutes before that, it was like about seven.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, we'll going back over there, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please do...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Bye-bye.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LYNN MCCARTHY, COOK COUNTY ASSISTANT STATE'S ATTORNEY: In addition to 911 calls there are OEMC radio communications that are made by the dispatcher relay to the officers. There's also communication by a sergeant who also heard the shots fired. Again, we are providing these communications to you and we'll play a few of those now.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... following, and just heard about seven or eight shots directly east of the location.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 10-4, coordinates and 2240 (ph), Robert's report and a lot of reports just east of the station...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... a little way down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.10-4 possibly the distance from the east of the station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 235, Robert?.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, 2-5, Robert, (inaudible) we are getting out 346 East city Third Street 3466533. In this calling, he says five shots were heard, it's a three males at foot just who walked pass last seen out of eastbound.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) trigger shots fired 346 East 53rd Street 3466533. This caller said five shots were heard, three males on foot just walked passed by the scene going eastbound...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... I heard, I heard about seven or eight, so we are on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 10-4, 35 Robert, just give us a couple of more calls one said 5-3 in King 5,300 South wing. The caller is saying he heard 9 to 10 shots fired, no shooter in flow, (inaudible) 346 east 53rd street (inaudible) were just shooting, the defender took off eastbound and then through the other (inaudible) of wearing dark clothing.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry?
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, this is the second time tonight.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 35 Robert.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that 245 Robert?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 225 Robert. We read you're about...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 6-30 is over here...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is to 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...down here as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 2527, (inaudible), who else is right in the front 2527 board?
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. (Inaudible) 10-4.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, he just fired and shots. So, we are not getting a personally blow on ticket 5352 King 535217. Anonymous caller says there are men with guns who ran into the building, said the entrance is around the corner, it's a two or three men running.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot fired, so now we're now getting personally gun taken fire at 5352 King, 5352 south king. Anonymous caller says there are men with gun who ran into the buildings, he said the entrance is around inquires, says two to three man ran in there, nothing further...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5352 is...
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 10-40, it was an anonymous caller, he said 5352 King.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
MCCARTHY: Now the thing that, they want to point out is those calls are not in played in real time. Those have been for the purposes of the presentation, we've eliminated the irrelevant calls. So, those were not being played in realtime. Those were played on over the extended period of time, but the reason that we're presenting them to you is to assist with the understanding that when the officers arrived on the scene, particularly Officer Hernandez, all of those calls are relevant to determine the reasonable belief that Officer Hernandez had as to whether or not Ronald Johnson had a weapon at the time or to understand what the officers were encountering when they are -- what the officers were encountering at the time that they responded to the scene.
[12:35:09] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What unit was Hernandez' vehicle?
MCCARTHY: At the time that the officers received those calls, they were dispatched.
The first car to arrive was Officers Hooper and Officer Monte. They were in an unmarked vehicle that did not have dash camera or the unmarked vehicles are not equipped with in-car camera recording equipment. The second car to arrive was a marked vehicle that had officers Abraham and Officer Calvin. That is a marked vehicle that did have the dash camera. It was activated. That will be the camera that is relevant that we will be showing to you. That camera did not have an audio portion activated. It was video only.
Officers Hooper and Monte were the individual -- were officers that exited their vehicles and spoke to individual A, who did point out the bullet damage to his vehicle at that time. That vehicle was parked near a bus shelter in front of the building where the party was held.
We have a diagram to illustrate those points t to you. This is Martin Luther King drive here. This is East 53rd Street. This is the building where the party took place. This is the bus stop shelter located here. This is individual A vehicle parked Southbound on King Drive.
The blue vehicle -- this is the first vehicle, Officer Hooper and Monte were in. The unmarked vehicle and this is the marked vehicles that have the dash cameras.
There are two other vehicles that also responded. This is an alley here. This is an unmarked vehicle that Sergeant Costello was driving. This here is a marked Tahoe vehicle that was off towards Hertz Gilliana. This does not have dash cam equipment that was operating. Their lights and sirens were not activated which would have activated the recording equipment, and they did not manually activate the equipment either.
So the only dash cam recording of the shooting incident comes from this vehicle back here which was Officers Abraham and Calvin.
As I indicated Sergeant Costello, Sergeant Costello was driving through this alley here, Northbound. This is the marked Tahoe.
When Sergeant Costello is positioned in that alley, he observes Ronald Johnson wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, and he fits the description that had been broadcast over the radio communications as do Officers Hurt and Gilliana.
They then positioned their vehicles heading Eastbound, this is the Tahoe positioned Eastbound, Sergeant Costello positioned Westbound. Ronald Johnson is then observed in this location. He then runs Eastbound on 53rd Street toward King Drive.
The chase is then broadcast over radio communications. At the same time, Officers Hooper and Monte are outside of their vehicle right here speaking to individual A about the damage that was done to this vehicle.
The damage to the vehicle was broadcast over radio communications of which you will also hear.
This designates Ronald Johnson. Ronald Johnson ran from this position towards King Drive, in that chase was also broadcast. When you view the dash cam video, you will notice that position of the vehicle does change and that is done in responds to the radio communication that the male is running Eastbound on 53rd toward King Drive.
The vehicles are in a position where they end up blocking each other. And that results to the foot chase. So the officers of these vehicles exit their vehicles and begin a foot chase. You will see that it on the video when it is played.
Ronald Johnson run to King Drive. He will then turn and proceed in this direction, right in the direction of where Officers Hooper and Monte are positioned on the sidewalk.
Officers Hooper and Monte hear the radio communication. That are male is running in their direction. They have their weapons drawn, and they precede Northbound towards the direction where he is situated.
He runs toward them. They observe a weapon in his hand. They attempt to take him into custody. At that point, Ronald Johnson engages in a struggle with Officer Hooper. You will not see this on the footage of the video.
[12:40:04] The angle of the camera and the car dash camera is such that there is an interaction of struggle, a physical struggle with Officer Hooper and Ronald Johnson that is not captured on the video.
Officer Hooper is knocked to the ground by Ronald Johnson. He then gets up changes his direction and runs back toward 53rd street, the same direction which he came.
At the time that the officers are involved in this chase with him at that time, they were not aware whether he was the offender or the victim of the aggravated discharge of the firearm from those shots that were being fired earlier.
At the time that they are also involved in this chase, they are also calling out for him to stop and drop his weapon and he is not complying with any of the verbal command. This involves and shows how he ran in the direction of Officer Hooper.
At the same time there's yet another vehicle an unmarks police path hole that is -- see, this vehicle driven by Officers Liss and Jones, drives up on the grass and head northbound in the grass in Washington park and attempts to stop Ronald Johnson.
At that time, there's yet another vehicle an unmarked vehicle that does not have dash car cam recording equipment. This is the vehicle that Officer Hernandez was in. The vehicle is driven by Officer Leano and Officer Gonzalez is the passenger and Officer George Hernandez is the back seat passenger. This vehicle is heading southbound on King Drive.
As they are approaching, they're monitoring radio communications. They also have a view of what is transpiring over here. They have advantage point and are able to see Ronald Johnson and its running eastbound, I'm sorry, southbound on King Drive, they're able to see the struggle with Officer Hooper, his efforts to stop Ronald Johnson. They also see Johnson knocked Hooper to the ground as he jump and get up, change course and runs back through King Drive and you will see that Johnson will run diagonally to the middle of the street heading into this public park into Washington Park...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what unit is that?
ANITA ALVAREZ, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: Hey, we'll answer questions later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, just for the purposes that the radio, if you play the radio so we know who were looking to, that unit is Hernandez.
ALVAREZ: Just keep going.
MCCARTHY: At this time, this vehicle that Officer Hernandez is in proceeds southbound, crosses the intersection. The three officers exist the vehicle, their weapons are drawn, Johnson runs behind their vehicle and crosses diagonally into the path of this unmarked vehicle that is attempting to intercept him as he is fleeing into the park.
The three officers as I indicated exit their vehicle. At the same time the officers are chasing a long east 53rd street. There are several officers that are chasing him as he proceed this way, they are shouting at him to stop, to freeze, to drop his weapon, he ignored all of those verbal commands and continues to run into the park.
At that time, Officer Hernandez discharged his weapon at Ronald Johnson, you will see the flesh from Officer Hernandez's weapon, he discharge his weapon a total of five times. Johnson continued to run into the park. You will not see Johnson struck by those bullets. That position of Johnson is such that he is in the park and out of the angle of the camera.
He was struck by two of the five shots as the state's attorney indicated. One of those lodged is a gun shot wound to the back of hiss right knee which was lodge in the second was a through and through gunshot wound to the back of his lower right shoulder that came true and exited near his left eye.
What we're going to play for you is, as I indicated the dash cam recording is video only it does not have an audio portion in order to put this the best possible perspective what we have done is to the best of our abilities. We took the zoned radio communications and time them and did an overlay to match up the zone communications with the video.
[12:45:00] We're going to play that for you, and then we're going to do a slow motion play of the relevant portion.
One thing to keep in mind when you see the video the time stamp that's marked on the dash cam recording is not accurate, it's delayed by approximately six minutes.
As I indicated you will not see Johnson struck by the gunshots. He fell forward and landed face down in the grass.
And the radio communications you hear pick up where we left off with the ones that we played previously about the school. (OFF-MIC)
MCCARTHY: This is Officer Hooper and Monte. This is the -- this visual aids vehicle to have a bullet damage at the building where the apartment, where the party has taken place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... point for a shootout over here of the car approximately 5312 King Drive.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All, right windows shot at 5312 King Drive.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... in Southbound team, grey sweatshirt, black pants you needed to go there.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Negative.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... we'll get an ambulance going for you.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4, ambulance is rolling.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I guess our weapon recovered.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MCCARTHY: We're going top play it again in slow motion, a couple of things to point out is you will see when Johnson is coming around the corner, you'll see as I pointed out Officer Gilliana chasing behind him, and Sergeant Costello. They were the officers that have called out the chase over the radio.
Here's Johnson running around the corner coming in the direction of Officer Hooper and Monte. This is Officer Gilliana, she's drawing her weapon.
This is Officer Hernandez in the back seat, Gonzalez and Leano. Here's Johnson running behind. You can see the flash of the shot coming for Hernandez, and Officer Hernandez was the Officer closest to Johnson at the time.
[12:50:17] And while that was taking place, the officers had indicated that numerous officers had been calling out to him to drop his weapon, to stop, to freeze, and he failed to comply with any of their commands.
What we did in order to get the best possible view of Johnson's hands to show any objects in his hands, we sent the video to the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory which was established by the FBI. We were trying to get the clearest possible image.
So the RCFL processed a still frame from that video at our request. We were trying to determine if there was visual proof of the weapon in Johnson's hands.
This is the result of their work.
After the shooting, several officers ran over to Ronald Johnson and indicated they had observed the weapon in his hand, as you could see on the video, once the vehicle was repositioned, the vehicle with the in car camera, you are able to see that officers did have their weapons drawn.
Officer Hernandez recovered that weapon from Johnson's hand, later secured it in the trunk sergeant's car.
As you heard there was a public safety issue as that crowed was forming. That weapon was photographed and also heard that radio communication was made within a minute and 50 seconds after the shooting that the weapon was in fact recovered.
The weapon recovered from Johnson was a Browning Hi Power 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol. It had an extended magazine capable of holding 21 rounds. It was loaded with 12 live rounds including a branded the ammunition that has three Tula brand cartridges.
Photos of the weapon do corroborate that Ronald Johnson had the weapon in his hand when he was struck and fell.
There's a clump of grass. These are photos that were taken while the weapon was secured in the back of the sergeant's vehicle. And as you can see, there is grass stuck in portions of the weapon. This would indicate that the weapon was in his hand at the time he fell in the grass. That was a photo that was taken of the grass area where he fell after he was struck.
Additionally, after the weapon was placed in the vehicle, when it was -- a time it was placed in the sergeant's vehicle, there was a live round of ammunition.
The weapon is in the slide lock position, when it's placed in the slide lock, it's normal for the cartridge to be ejected that did not happen in this case.
As you can see, the cartridge is still in there. That's just another piece of information that could indicate that there was some type of malfunction when the -- he fell to the ground.
Additionally, there was an unfired bullet, another 9 millimeter Tula brand bullet that was recovered on the back seat of individual A's vehicle, that forensic investigators found that was in the same position where Ronald Johnson was seated, right there that was a Tula brand ammunition, it's the same type of ammunition that was recovered in Ronald Johnson's weapon.
And that corroborates that individual A's. But after the shots have been fired at them, he heard Ronald Johnson cocking a pistol.
That unfired Tula brand bullet was sent to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, they examined it and they found markings on it that were consistent with an extractor from a semi-automatic pistol that would corroborate with individual A's what the individual A's, said that he heard a cocking of a pistol in the where Ronald Johnson was sitting.
Additionally, the pistol came back with Ronald Johnson's DNA profile on the weapon. And the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, did ballistics testing and was able to link Johnson's weapon to a prior shooting that took place September 25th, 2013 at 5637 South Green in Chicago, and that shooting, no one had been arrested and no weapon was recovered back in 2013.
[12:55:14] ALVAREZ: Thanks, Lynn.
Based on the totality of evidence in this case, and with the very, very careful analysis of the laws of the State of Illinois, it is our extermination that no criminal charges will be filed against Officer Hernandez in connection with the shooting death of Ronald Johnson.
The totality of the evidence establishes the following. At the time of the shooting, Mr. Johnson was armed with a handgun.
Mr. Johnson had run from an area where shots had recently been fired. Mr. Johnson resisted arrest and Mr. Johnson ran into a public park and towards an occupied police vehicle that was arriving on the scene in that park.
Based upon an objective review of the evidence and the law, we have determined that the prosecution could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the actions of Officer Hernandez were not reasonable and permissible under the laws of the State of Illinois.
Before we take questions, I would like to cover two important points. With respect to the officer shooting Ronald Johnson in the back, the fact that the officer Hernandez shot Ronald Johnson in the back is one of many factors that had to be carefully considered and evaluated.
Even though Mr. Johnson was running away from Hernandez and other officers, he was running towards a police vehicle containing two other responding officers and unknown members of the public inside that park.
Furthermore, Johnson could have easily turned around and quickly fire at the officers pursuing him or even fired as he ran.
In fact, in his statements to investigators, Officer Hernandez referenced a shooting in which an offender shot and struck a Chicago police officer as the offender ran with the officer in hot pursuit.
This was prosecuted by my office just recently in August, resulting in a recent conviction of attempted murder of a police officer against a defendant by the name of William Wright.
We're also going to show you this video that captured this incident right now.
Keep in mind, this is a suspect fleeing a police officer on foot and a defendant stretches his hand back while continuing to run forward and shoots the officer who is behind him.
It is a chilling depiction of how quickly a responding officer can be struck down. It really is chilling, and I'd really believe that you need to see this. Thank you.
That's the officer who's hobbling along after being struck there.
Are we going to play that slower?
MCCARTHY: That wasn't realtime, we'll play it again.
ALVAREZ: We'll play it slower.
MCCARTHY: In slow motion.
(OFF-MIC)
MCCARTHY: That was -- that's the offender and that was the officer. Can we play it again?
ALVAREZ: Yes.
MCCARTHY: That's the offender William Wright, he has the weapon in his right hand and you can see the flash of the weapon as he's running forward.
ALVAREZ: Never turned around.
MCCARTHY: The discharge with his right hand while running forward without ever turning his body position.
The officer will come from behind here after being struck in the leg.
ALVAREZ: Lastly, I want to address statements that have been made by a private civil attorney who is suing the city of Chicago for monetary damages in this particular case.
This attorney has alleged that Mr. Johnson did not have a gun that night, and that the gun was recovered -- that has been recovered after Mr. Johnson was shot was planted by either Officer Hernandez or other Chicago police personnel.
This allegation is not supported by any of the evidence in this case, as Assistant State's Attorney McCarthy has just outlined all of the evidence that we have points to the fact that Mr. Johnson did indeed have a gun that evening, and the police witness accounts also support that.
Accounts from the passengers who were with Mr. Johnson in the car that evening and the fact that a live cartridge casing was found in the car where Ronald Johnson was seated that matched the ammunition in the gun that police recovered in this -- in his possession.
[13:00:12] In addition, Mr. Johnson's DNA is on that weapon, and this particular weapon...
