For only the second time since 1997, a Chicago police officer has been indicted in a police-involved shooting, this time for the death of the unarmed 22-year-old woman, Rekia Boyd.
CPD Officer Dante Servin, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct in connection to Boyd's March 2012 death near Douglas Park. Monday, Servin was ordered held on $75,000 bond, according to DNAinfo Chicago.
Servin will be stripped of his police powers until the trial concludes, the Sun-Times reports.
According to WGN, Servin's indictment is only the second time in more than 15 years a Chicago officer has faced formal charges in a police-involved shooting.
"It's a sad day when an officer is charged for doing something he was trained to do," said Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden who criticized the charges and insisted Servin's name will be cleared through the trial.
Prosecutors said Servin was "frustrated" by the noise coming from a large block party by his home near Douglas Park the evening Boyd was killed.
"She did not deserve to get shot," Servin is seen telling Boyd's brother in footage filmed by a French documentary group covering Chicago violence, the Tribune reports. "She did not deserve that. (But) my soul is clear."
Accounts on what happened the night of Boyd's shooting differ between Chicago police and Boyd's friends and family, the former arguing that the off-duty officer "feared for his life" and acted in self-defense while the latter say Boyd was an unarmed innocent bystander killed without justification.
After leaving his home, armed, "to get a burger," prosecutors say Servin confronted Boyd and her group as they were leaving the park. From his car, Servin told the group to quiet down, sparking a verbal altercation between him and the men in Boyd's party.
Servin said one of the men with Boyd, Antonio Cross, pointed a gun at him, prompting Servin to fire in self-defense. Cross was hit in the hand and Boyd was hit in the back of the head; she died two days later. Cross was later determined to be holding a cell phone at the time and the Independent Police Review Authority has since stated no weapon was ever recovered at the scene.
The city settled a $4.5 million wrongful death lawsuit with Boyd's family this March.
Boyd's shooting death attracted national attention following on the heels of Trayvon Martin's death in Florida. Boyd's story was the focus of an episode of "The Injustice Files: Hood of Suspicion" on the Investigation Discovery cable channel from earlier this year. (watch a clip embedded below)
from Chicago - The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/rekia-boyd-officer-charge_n_4339254.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago
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CPD Officer Dante Servin, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct in connection to Boyd's March 2012 death near Douglas Park. Monday, Servin was ordered held on $75,000 bond, according to DNAinfo Chicago.
Servin will be stripped of his police powers until the trial concludes, the Sun-Times reports.
According to WGN, Servin's indictment is only the second time in more than 15 years a Chicago officer has faced formal charges in a police-involved shooting.
"It's a sad day when an officer is charged for doing something he was trained to do," said Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden who criticized the charges and insisted Servin's name will be cleared through the trial.
Prosecutors said Servin was "frustrated" by the noise coming from a large block party by his home near Douglas Park the evening Boyd was killed.
"She did not deserve to get shot," Servin is seen telling Boyd's brother in footage filmed by a French documentary group covering Chicago violence, the Tribune reports. "She did not deserve that. (But) my soul is clear."
Accounts on what happened the night of Boyd's shooting differ between Chicago police and Boyd's friends and family, the former arguing that the off-duty officer "feared for his life" and acted in self-defense while the latter say Boyd was an unarmed innocent bystander killed without justification.
After leaving his home, armed, "to get a burger," prosecutors say Servin confronted Boyd and her group as they were leaving the park. From his car, Servin told the group to quiet down, sparking a verbal altercation between him and the men in Boyd's party.
Servin said one of the men with Boyd, Antonio Cross, pointed a gun at him, prompting Servin to fire in self-defense. Cross was hit in the hand and Boyd was hit in the back of the head; she died two days later. Cross was later determined to be holding a cell phone at the time and the Independent Police Review Authority has since stated no weapon was ever recovered at the scene.
The city settled a $4.5 million wrongful death lawsuit with Boyd's family this March.
Boyd's shooting death attracted national attention following on the heels of Trayvon Martin's death in Florida. Boyd's story was the focus of an episode of "The Injustice Files: Hood of Suspicion" on the Investigation Discovery cable channel from earlier this year. (watch a clip embedded below)
from Chicago - The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/rekia-boyd-officer-charge_n_4339254.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago
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