White Cop Who Fatally Shot Unarmed Black Teen in the Back of the Head From 55 Ft Away as he Fled Might Be Fired by Chicago
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Black Clone Won't Bring Charges Against White Cop Who Murdered 15 yr Old who Looked Just Like Her. In photo Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. But maybe he will lose his job.
From [ChicagoTrib] A white Chicago police officer who was cleared of wrongdoing by Superintendent Eddie Johnson in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy still must face a disciplinary hearing that could cost him his job.
Dakota Bright was on the street and not breaking any laws when Officer Ternand tried to stop him for no lawful reason. Because he had been beaten by the police before, Bright tried to leave. Ternand shot Bright in the back of the head, killing him. [MORE]
Last summer, Chicago’s police review agency had found Officer Brandon Ternand used excessive force, calling the shooting of Dakota Bright “unprovoked and unwarranted” and recommending his firing.
But Johnson disagreed that Ternand should be fired, finding that his actions in the November 2012 shooting were clearly justified, according to records.
However, last week, a Chicago Police Board member selected to review the matter rejected Johnson’s recommendation and ordered an evidentiary hearing be held to decide if Ternand should be disciplined. Possible punishment ranges up to his dismissal.
“After reviewing the matter, I find that the superintendent did not meet the burden of overcoming the recommendation of discipline,” Police Board member Steve Flores said last week at the board's monthly meeting at police headquarters.
Until recently, a three-member panel of the Police Board would resolve disciplinary cases if the superintendent disagreed with the decision of the Independent Police Review Authority. But now that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has replaced IPRA, those duties fall to a single member chosen randomly.
Ternand, a 10-year police veteran, was stripped of police powers in October and placed on paid desk duty pending the disciplinary proceeding, according to the department.
Ternand fatally shot Bright while chasing the Black teen on foot in the South Side's Park Manor neighborhood on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 2012. IPRA concluded that Bright was not armed when he was shot in the back of the head, though the white cop says he may have tossed a gun earlier during the chase. Investigators never found a weapon. [MORE]
In ruling the on-duty shooting unjustified, IPRA questioned the truthfulness of certain statements made by Ternand to investigators, including a claim that he shot Bright when the teen reached into his waist area and started turning toward the officer after scaling a fence.
"This lacks credibility," IPRA said in its report, noting that Bright was already two city lots away — about 50 to 55 feet — from Ternand when the officer opened fire.
Given that Bright had no gun when he was shot, IPRA said, it was unlikely the teen would have made a gesture toward the officer, particularly since he was likely pulling away from the officer during the foot chase.
Between mid-December 2010 and mid-December 2014, records show, Ternand received about 25 complaints, joining about a dozen other officers who amassed the most complaints within the 12,000-strong police force over that period.
Ternand also has been named in six federal lawsuits in addition to the suit by Bright's family filed in Cook County Circuit Court. Records show that the city has paid out about $1.1 million overall in litigation involving Ternand, including $925,000 last year to settle the lawsuit by Bright's mother.
According to the records, Ternand has fired shots on at least three separate occasions while on duty — all within an approximately two-year period.
In August 2012, about three months before Bright's shooting, Ternand and another officer fired at two men in the 6700 block of South Blackstone Avenue. Ternand fired three shots but didn't hit anyone, according to the records. In October 2014, Ternand shot three times at a 16-year-old in the 6600 block of South Kenwood Avenue but missed, the records show.
On learning of IPRA's findings, the office of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx took another look at the shooting after prosecutors under her predecessor, Anita Alvarez, decided in 2013 not to charge Ternand.
But Foxx’s office has since also decided not to prosecute the officer.
“After a review of all available admissible evidence, the state’s attorney’s office has concluded there is no basis for criminal charges in this case,” Robert Foley a senior adviser in Foxx's office, said last week.
