IPRA, DOJ to take second look at fatal police shooting

CHICAGO (FOX 32 NEWS) - Five years ago last month, 19-year old Calvin Cross was walking with his cousin a few blocks from his South Side home when they were confronted by three police officers.

His cousin stopped, but Calvin fled.

He was shot and killed as he ran from them. Police claimed he had fired three times before they returned fire, with 40 shots, five of them hit Cross, including one in the teenager's forehead.

His mother was shocked, she said he'd never been in trouble before and would not have had a gun.

"I knew it wasn't true, I knew it wasn't true. Me being his mother and knowing my child, I knew it wasn't true. Because he didn't Even hang with rowdy people" Dana Cross, Calvin's mother, said.

An IPRA investigation seemed to back up her beliefs. The gun police claimed to have found 1,000 feet from her son's body was from the early 1900s, rusty, inoperable, and all six bullets were still in the chambers.

The city eventually settled the family's civil lawsuit for $2 million, but the officers involved were cleared by IPRA and have never been disciplined

"The officers didn't miss a day of work," said the family's attorney Tony Thedford. "They were in fact on the street within 48 hours and a year after the shootings received commendations for bravery in the line of duty."

The Laquan McDonald case and recent word that IPRA was reviewing previous police shootings prompted Dana Cross to contact IPRA last week.

She's now been informed, they're taking a fresh look at police conduct surrounding her son's death.

"I would like to see them brung up on charges for what the did. If it would have been anybody else, a civilian who did this, they'd have been brought up on charges," Dana Cross said.