Eight years after it happened, COPA releases recordings from night CPD Officer James Hunt shot, killed DeSean Pittman, 17
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Eight years after a Chicago Police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old on the city's South Side, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability is finally releasing recordings from the crime scene.
The officer who pulled the trigger was James Hunt, who also bragged on camera about killing someone and who has since been relieved of his police powers.
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported Friday, COPA said the delay in the release of the records took so long because the office had actually been bound by law not to release the records at all. The reason was that the teen Hunt shot and killed, DeSean Pittman, was a juvenile.
But for years, Pittman's family has been trying to get more information about the shooting — which was ruled a "reasonable" use of force back in 2017.
Newly-released recordings from that night – Aug. 24, 2014 – in East Chatham finally paint a vivid picture.
First, a caller reports hearing shots fired. She tells a dispatcher she's crying because she's scared, and reports that she did not see who was shooting.
"They have hoodies - that's what I'm saying. There's like four of these guys," the caller says.
Thus began the chain of events that led to the shooting that killed Pittman. His family was told four Chicago Police officers arrived on the scene.
A call then comes that shots have been fired by police at 80th Street and Ingleside Avenue, and the suspect is down. Only one officer actually fired - Hunt, who fired eleven times.
"Did they ever say which bullet actually killed him?" said Bonnette Jernigan, Pittman's grandmother. "The first? The second? The third? The fourth? The fifth? The sixth?"
Witnesses said Pittman had shot and killed a 22-year-old man in self-defense before he was killed by Officer Hunt. Strangely, an autopsy said both bodies were removed from the scene before investigators arrived.
The Pittman case was left wide open until 2017 — a full three years later — when the precursor to COPA ruled that "P.O. Hunt's use of force was reasonable."
The family always questioned the encounter — especially when they later saw Hunt bragging on camera in 2018 about killing a man. That moment first exposed by CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards.
Hunt engaged 20-year-old Kenneth Lee while he crossed the street with some friends on July 3, 2018. Lee said Officer Hunt accelerated in his squad car, responding to the scene.
That is when the Lee and his friends say they began to tape the encounter.
The following interchanges were captured on the cell phone video and CPD body camera video.
"You say you trying to kill mother-----s?" asks Lee.
"No, I kill mother-----s," Hunt responds.
"You just tried to hit me with a car?" Lee said.
"Don't try to film me, dude," Hunt orders.
Hunt tells Lee's friends to stop filming and exits the vehicle.
"He said we about to go on Snapchat," Lee recalls in a recent interview with CBS.
In the video, Lee responds by saying, "You don't even got a Snapchat, bro."
Hunt retorts to Lee, "Yeah I do, it's called 'I f----d your mom.' "
Hunt's troubling track record includes 24 complaints made in a six-year period. One of those misconduct complaints — filed by a woman in 2020 — led to Hunt being stripped of his police powers.
Back in the 2014 case, Pittman's family has long felt like it was a case of Officer Hunt's word against the word of witnesses. In part, that is because there is no body camera video of the incident — it happened so long ago that body cameras had not been issued to most officers.
The recordings are being released now with the permission of the family. COPA explained that they have been reviewing all cases in which there was a minor involved in an incident that would have triggered the City's Video Release Policy, and they're working with families
