Chicago Police union standing behind officers in CTA shooting

CHICAGO - The head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is standing behind the two officers involved in a shooting at a downtown CTA station Friday afternoon. He says problems arose that were beyond their control and Chicago police need to closely look at that.

In just two minutes, the situation at the Grand and State Red Line station escalates from a man resisting arrest to being shot twice. Police tase him, but he continues to wiggle out of their handcuffs.  After one officer calls to the other to shoot him, it happens. One shooting, but with two different perspectives.

“The thing that disturbed me the most was that there was an incident where two police officers were struggling with an offender, and all the citizens walking past and no one offered to help,” said Kevin Graham, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President.

“I’m confused by the comment. We regularly hear from the FOP and police officers that they don’t want citizens involving themselves in them doing their duty,” said Ed Yohnka, American Civil Liberties Union Director of Communications.  The two officers involved have been placed on 30-day administrative duty. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement, her office is working on the case in partnership with the FBI.

“First of all there needs to be a full, complete and transparent investigation of this and people need to be held accountable if they acted outside of the bounds of what they should have,” said Yohnka.

“And one of the problems that these two officers were having was that their radios didn’t work in the subway. That's a big problem and I think that the department’s gonna have to start looking at that very, very closely if they want to try and improve the security on the CTA,” said Graham.

“We need again to move towards a day when policing is built around de-escalation and community relations and not throwing people to the floor and ultimately shooting them,” said Yohnka.

The officers involved are assigned to the mass transit unit. Investigators plan to review all camera footage. The mayor called the shooting "disturbing."

The man who was shot had been jumping between train cars, and there’s no indication if he had a weapon. He underwent surgery Friday night at Northwestern Memorial and was last reported in critical, but stable condition.