Michael McDunnah/Twitter (CHICAGO) — Chicago police and prosecutors announced Sunday that they will drop charges against a man who was shot by officers during a struggle Friday afternoon in a transit station.
Chicago Police Superintendent Charlie Beck asked Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx not to charge Ariel Roman with resisting arrest and criminal narcotics charges, according to Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
A witness recorded and later tweeted a video of two officers trying to apprehend Roman inside the Grand Red Line station Friday, where they ultimately fired shots at the man.
Roman was in critical condition as of Saturday night and the shooting is under investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney and the FBI, according to the Chicago PD.
“Given the totality of circumstances and the department’s significant level of concern around this incident, it would be insensitive to advocate for these charges,” Guglielmi said in a statement.
The Cook County State Attorney’s office said Sunday afternoon it agreed to the police’s request and would dismiss the charges, according to a spokeswoman.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office did not immediately return messages for comment. She tweeted Friday night that she found the video “extremely disturbing and the actions by these officers are deeply concerning.”
“I view this video with the eye of someone who has personally investigated numerous police-involved shootings and reviewed evidence of many more,” Lightfoot, the former chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, tweeted.
Michael McDunnah, who recorded the footage of the incident, told ABC station WLS-TV that he heard one of the officers yell “Shoot him” before another sprayed Roman with mace.
Roman was then shot twice by officers.
“He was resisting but he was not violent, as far as I could see, and he was unarmed,” McDunnah said.
Chicago Lodge No. 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing the officers, slammed the mayor and department in a Facebook post Saturday for their responses to the shooting. Union president Kevin Graham argued that all the facts needed to be gathered.
“Why has the superintendent and the mayor not commented on the fact that not one individual assisted these officers during the struggle to place the offender clearly engaged in felony resisting into custody, an offender who once again failed to comply with police orders?” he asked in the post.
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