Jeremy Gorner and Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Chicago’s investigative police oversight agency released video Thursday showing a man being fatally shot by police Sept. 5 after he was hit with a Taser and lunged at a sergeant with a butcher knife.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released several body camera videos and 911 recordings related to the shooting in Vittum Park in the Southwest Side’s Garfield Ridge community as part of the city’s video release policy, which requires that video and other evidence be released to the public within 60 days of shootings involving officers.
Chicago Lawn District officers were called to the area about 1:40 a.m. Sept. 5 for a call of a person stabbed. The victim gave police a description of the suspect, Chicago police and COPA said immediately after the shooting.
At least two officers and a sergeant approached the suspect shortly afterward in the park, located off 49th Street and Lavergne Avenue, the officials said. The officers and the sergeant walked toward the suspect, Shaon Warner, according to body camera video.
“Hey, get your hands up,” one officer can be heard to say on the video. “My man, put your hands up.”
“Let’s see your hands,” the sergeant also demanded. “Hands up now.”
In the video, the man appeared to hunch over and pick up a bag.
“Don’t you dare,” the sergeant said.
The man then started walking toward the sergeant, prompting her to deploy her Taser on him. He then fell to the ground.
Warner can then be seen standing up, the Taser prongs still stuck in him.
“(Put) the (expletive) knife down! Drop the (expletive) knife!” an officer shouts on the video. “Drop it!”
Warner can be seen lunging at the sergeant with the knife. According to police officials and COPA, the sergeant’s safety vest was punctured. She was not seriously injured.
Other officers on the scene fired several shots and Warner eventually fell down before he was rolled over and handcuffed behind his back.
Nearby, the sergeant can be seen attempting to catch her breath as her fellow officers checked on her.
“It didn’t go through! It didn’t go through!” the sergeant said of being attacked with a knife.
Police reports provided by COPA show two officers opened fire on Warner, one of them firing 12 shots and the other nine shots. Warner died at the scene.
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