Civilian Office of Police Accountability
- Chicago's independent police review board released video of a fatal police shooting on Wednesday.
- The video showed Anthony Alvarez, 22, being shot in the back on March 31. He later died.
- The officer is heard yelling "Drop the gun!" as he shoots.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Chicago's independent police review board has released bodycam footage showing the police killing of a 22-year-old Latino man last month, before he later died.
The footage, released on Wednesday, showed the officer chasing Anthony Alvarez on foot through an alley before Alvarez turns onto a residential street, and the officer spots him holding what appears to be a gun.
"Hey, drop the gun! Drop the gun!" the officer is heard saying before he aims his own gun at Alvarez, and four shots are heard.
Alvarez is seen falling to the ground, and heard groaning in pain and asking the officer: "Why you shooting me?"
"You had a gun!" the officer is heard responding.
Another officer is seen tending to Alvarez's wounds, and pointing to what looks like gun nearby in the grass.
In the ensuing minutes, more officers are seen arriving on the scene and they tag in and out, doing chest compressions to try to revive Alvarez, to no avail.
Alvarez was later taken to the hospital and pronounced dead, officials said, according to The Washington Post and NBC Chicago. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said it could not yet comment on an autopsy, The Post added.
In a press release announcing the release of the bodycam footage and other materials related to the shooting, the Chicago Office of Police Accountability (COPA) said it was recommending the officer who shot Alvarez be relieved of police powers pending the completion of an investigation.
CPD
Once COPA is done with its investigation, it plans to hand over the report to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, which would ultimately decide whether or not to press charges against the officer, the Associated Press reported.
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson declined to comment on the case to Insider on Thursday, saying it involves an open investigation.
The CPD has also released its own compilation of the Alvarez video, highlighting a frame where the suspect is seen holding what appears to be a gun while running from the officer.
Neither the city nor police department have named the officer who shot Alvarez. The AP reported that a document released by COPA named the officer as Evan Solano, 29, a six-year veteran of the force.
What prompted the chase?
What prompted officers to chase Alvarez remains unclear.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago said that it was over a traffic offense.
"We can't live in a world where a minor traffic offense results in someone being shot and killed. That's not acceptable to me, and it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone," Lightfoot said before the footage was released on Wednesday.
The head of the Chicago police union, John Catanzara, said in a video statement that the chase stemmed from an incident the day before in which Alvarez fled from officers in a vehicle.
Catanzara said the officer who shot Alvarez spotted him the next day and started chasing him on foot.
COPA
Catanzara also suggested that the officer shot Alvarez because the suspect started turning towards the officer.
"The officer - with the gun in plain sight - fears that the officer is going to turn and start firing on him because that's the motion he was making," Catanzara said.
Alvarez's family on Wednesday said they wanted a proper reason for the chase.
"I can't believe he is gone. I just want some answers; why did they do this to Anthony?" Alvarez's father, Oscar Martinez, said in a statement released Wednesday through the family's lawyers, according to the AP.
A string of controversies
The bodycam footage was released weeks after the Chicago Police Department fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo, another Latino.
Bodycam footage released earlier this month showed Toledo dropping what appeared to be a gun and putting his hands up before he was shot by an officer.
The officer in Toledo's shooting has been placed on administrative leave, which is routine in police shootings.
COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy would not explain to the AP why the board had already recommended the officer who killed Alvarez be stripped of police powers, but admitted that it was rare to do so, so early on in an investigation.
According to Chicago's Invisible Institute, which tracks police misconduct, Solano has received four complaints since 2017, including two for improper searches.