Shomari Legghette Sentenced To Life In Prison For The Killing Of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Shomari Legghette has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killing of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer.
Legghette was found guilty in March of Bauer's murder. Bauer, commander of the Near North (18th) District, was killed in the stairwell of the Thompson Center downtown on Feb. 13, 2018.
Police said they saw Legghette urinating on Lower Wacker Drive, and when they approached him, he took off – armed to the teeth and carrying drugs. Bauer heard the call on his police radio, saw Legghette, and tried to stop him. During the struggle, Legghette shot Bauer.
For his defense, Legghette claimed he did not know Bauer was a police officer and feared for his life.
"Feb. 13, 2018 is a day I will remember forever. It was the worst day of my life," Bauer's wife Erin said Wednesday.
In court Bauer's wife, Erin, and daughter, Grace, got to address his killer. Erin said her husband had a plan for retirement that will never be.
"He wanted to work in a book store when he retired," she said.
"He was an amazing role model and a better father," Bauer's daughter Grace said.
"He was like an angel on Earth. He had a good sense of humor, and he was very silly with us at home," Erin said as she described him, trying to capture a colorful life cut short in an ugly act of violence.
She described a cop who went above and beyond, including during a brutal snow storm in 2011, leaving the warmth of his home after hearing about people stranded on Lake Shore Drive.
"He left and ended up pushing cars on Lake Shore Drive for hours in a blizzard. He always put others first," she said.
Over the past two years, Chicago news viewers saw one photo of Cmdr. Bauer countless times.
"I remember that day the picture was taken," Grace said. "He came home with copies of the picture, and he was very proud that he didn't blink."
Now the mother and daughter are left to ponder a life of what ifs.
"It's sad not knowing what else he would've done with is life and how he would've changed others' lives, including ours," Erin said. "I know that I will see him again one day, and I also know that on February 13, 2018, when he entered heaven Jesus said, 'You've done everything I've asked of you and more. Welcome home.'"
In the days after his arrest Legghette blamed Mayor Rahm Emanuel for bias. Wednesday in a rambling address to the court he blamed prosecutors, his defense team and the system for injustice.
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