After stealing a automobile, a teen driver rammed the automobile right into a pair of cops and allegedly aimed a pistol at them. Regardless of critically injuring one of many officers, the teenager’s prices have been dropped and officers have been criminally charged as an alternative.
Officers Jeffery Shafer, 35, and Victor Guebara, 40, have been dealing with felony prices after arresting a teen for stealing a automobile and ramming it into their cruiser. Nevertheless, many are conflicted on the costs being introduced in opposition to the officers and people who have been dropped in opposition to the teenager suspect.
The Chicago cops have been patroling Woodlawn after they noticed a stolen automobile that had been reported earlier that day, the Chicago Solar-Occasions stories. The 17-year-old driver led police on a chase, in the end ramming the automobile into the officers’ automobile after they tried to drag up beside him. The younger man finally crashed right into a storage, ending the pursuit.
The teenager reportedly complied with an helping officer’s orders to cease and put up his palms. Nevertheless, whereas the officer was handcuffing the suspect, Guebara allegedly walked up and punched the teenager within the face. Shafter then allegedly straddled the teenager and punched him 4 instances within the head earlier than pushing his face into the concrete. Shafter then made the boy arise and shoved him right into a steel fence, inflicting the suspect to chop his head.
The incident was captured by a POD surveillance digital camera in addition to the helping officer’s bodycam, although neither Guebara nor Shafer’s bodycams have been activated. As such, Shafer and Guebara have been later relieved of their police duties to face prices of aggravated battery and official misconduct, which may land every officer in jail for as much as 10 years.
The teenager was initially charged in juvenile court docket with battery and weapons offenses. Nevertheless, these prices have been later dropped. Shafer and Guebara each declare that the teenager pointed a gun at them, however neither gave this data over the police radio till after the pistol was recovered from contained in the automobile’s glove field.
Officer Shafer was critically injured within the crash and required surgical procedure and subsequent medical remedy. Protection attorneys say that each officers served within the Center East and are embellished Military fight veterans who have been wounded and had “served honorably.” The protection crew added that that they had “completely no disciplinary historical past,” WGN stories.
“These two officers know this man has acquired a gun. They don’t know if the opposite cops know he has a gun. He struggled. They used mechanical strikes which they’re effectively allowed to make use of,” a protection legal professional stated.
Two different helping officers have been accused of misconduct and have been confronted with disciplinary prices in connection to using extreme pressure. They have been accused of both failing to intervene or failing to activate their bodycam through the arrest. The Cook dinner County state’s legal professional’s workplace and the police division’s Bureau of Inner Affairs concluded the investigation and determined to proceed with felony prices.
If convicted, the officers may face a minimal sentence of probation to a most of two to five years in jail for every of the costs. The officers maintained their innocence and demand that the teenager had threatened their lives by aiming the pistol at them previous to his arrest.
If these officers used extreme pressure on the teenager suspect, they need to face the results of their actions. Nevertheless, the truth that the teenager will face no repercussions is simply as disturbing.
