Aldermen Prepared To Approve Nearly $4.3M In Settlements Of Police Misconduct Lawsuits, Including Payment To Woman Dragged From Car At Brickyard Mall In May 2020
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago taxpayers could soon be on the hook for more than $4 million in settlements for another handful of lawsuits accusing Chicago police officers of misconduct, including a $1.675 million payment to a woman who was dragged out of her car by police outside the Brickyard Mall during widespread looting in the summer of 2020.
The City Council Finance Committee on Thursday will vote on the $1.675 million payout to Mia Wright, who was left blind in one eye after being dragged from her car in the parking lot of the Brickyard Mall on May 31, 2020, amid widespread civil unrest and looting in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Wright and several relatives had gone to the Brickyard Mall that day because there had been looting at another mall they had wanted to visit. But they quickly realized the Target store they wanted to visit was closed. She said their vehicle was surrounded by police as they tried to leave the parking lot.
Cellphone video of the incident showed officers on both sides of the car bashing the windows with their batons before pulling Wright and another woman from the vehicle and pinning them to the ground.
Wright has said she was trying to get her out of the car when police dragged her out by the hair, and then pinned her to the ground, pressing a knee against her neck and back.
Officers thought they had been looting, but Wright has denied she and her family were involved in any looting.
"I have no reason to loot. They have no reason to loot. I mean, we're Black. We can't be out here at Brickyard?" she said days after the incident.
Officers did confiscate the car, but it was later released and seriously damaged. The family insisted they were never given an explanation, nor an apology.
Wright got glass in her eye during the incident, and was left blind in one eye.
Wright initially was charged with disorderly conduct, but the charge was later dropped.
Two officers were stripped of their police powers after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability opened an investigation, but it's unclear if they faced any further disciplinary action.
In another settlement being recommended by the city's Law Department, the city would pay $1.4 million to Shatrell McComb, the mother of 13-month-old Dillan Harris, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver during a high-speed police chase in July 2015.
Dillan was sitting in a stroller as he and his mother waited at a bus stop near 63rd Street and Ellis Avenue on July 11, 2015, when 21-year-old Antoine Watkins jumped the curb while fleeing police, and ran over the toddler.
Watkins was arrested a short time later, after police saw him driving a car matching the description of the vehicle that killed Dillan.
McComb later sued 20 Chicago police officers, claiming they disregarded orders to halt a pursuit of Watkins, who police said was fleeing a fatal shooting in the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue. That shooting left 22-year-old Melvin Carr – a rapper known as Capo – dead of multiple gunshot wounds.
Watkins also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and has been charged with first-degree murder in Dillan's death.
McComb's lawyers said police share responsibility for Dillan's death, because they were chasing Watkins through a residential neighborhood, where he was driving up to 70 miles an hour, and running red lights.
According to the lawsuit, police supervisors instructed officers to stop the chase, because of the danger to pedestrians, but they continued their pursuit for another 20 minutes. McComb's attorneys have accused the officers of ignoring public safety as they chased Watkins across four miles of residential streets.
At the time McComb filed her lawsuit, the city's Law Department said "While we are deeply saddened by this tragic event, there is no evidence to suggest that anyone other than Antoine Watkins is responsible for this incident."
A third settlement aldermen will weigh on Thursday would pay $1.2 million to Jomner Orozco Carreto and Carlos Ramirez, after an off-duty officer shot at them in December 2020, and later was charged with felony aggravated battery in the shooting.
Police have said, around 10:45 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2020, Officer Kevin Bunge was sitting in a parked in the 3300 block of West Irving Park Road, when he reported hearing gunshots. He then walked up to Carreto and Ramirez, who were parked behind him, and originally said the men aimed guns at him first, prompting him to open fire, wounding Carreto in the hand.
However, the only gun investigators found belonged to Bunge, and video indicated the opposite chain of events to Bunge's story.
After Bunge was charged with felony aggravated battery three months later, his attorneys changed the narrative slightly, claiming he feared Carreto and Ramirez were going to carjack him after two previous failed carjackings in recent prior weeks.
Carreto's and Ramirez's attorney, Brad Thomson said, Bunge overreacted when a car parked behind him.
"If you're an individual that views somebody parking on the same street that you're parked on as deadly threat, that shows a problem with judgment," Thomson said after Bunge was charged in March 2021.
Thomson said, if Bunge believed the men were trying to carjack him, "a reasonable response might be to drive away."
"To get out of the vehicle and approach individuals that you supposedly are afraid of is not reasonable," Thomson said.
While Bunge now faces felony charges and has been suspended, Thomson said what is more concerning for everyone is the duty the officer held at the time of the incident, as a Chicago Police Academy instructor.
"The fact this officer is an instructor for the use of force for the Police Academy reflects that there's a systemic problem in the Chicago Police Department and how they train on the use of force," Thomson said.
The lawsuit Carreto and Ramirez filed lawsuit said Carreto was driving at the time of the incident, while Ramirez was in the passenger seat. They were headed out to meet another friend and were traveling west on Irving Park Road at the time, the lawsuit said.
Ramirez was using his GPS to navigate and provide directions to Carreto, and Carreto had doubts about the directions the GPS was providing and decided to pull over to use the GPS safely on his own.
Carreto pulled to the side of the road on Irving Park Road, where the officer involved – identified in the lawsuit as Kevin Bunge – was sitting in a sport-utility vehicle parked in front of Carreto's car after just having finished his shift, the lawsuit said.
While Carreto and Ramirez were parked legally on the street trying to figure out directions, Bunge came up with holding a handgun and displaying a police star around his neck, the lawsuit alleged.
The suit went on to claim that Bunge fired at them "without cause or justification," prompting Carreto to speed off, call 911, and go to a nearby store to seek help.
Carreto was shot in the hand, and he ended up with significant injuries to two fingers, the lawsuit said. Glass from the shattered car window also hit Ramirez in the face, and the noise from the gunshots was so loud that it caused significant pain and hearing loss in his left ear.
If approved by the Finance Committee, all three settlements would go to the full City Council for a vote next week.
