By Jeremy Gorner and Annie Sweeney

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — In their training, Chicago police officers are presented with scenarios in which they're confronted by dangerous individuals while other people are nearby. The goal is to eliminate the threat while keeping bystanders safe.

Yet over the years, innocent victims have been shot by police, most recently last weekend when an officer shot and killed Bettie Jones, a 55-year-old mother of five. Interim police Superintendent John Escalante quickly acknowledged the shooting was an accidental misfire by an officer aiming at a 19-year-old student who police said had a baseball bat and was being combative.

The fatal shooting of Jones and the student, Quintonio LeGrier, has come under especially intense scrutiny in light of the federal civil rights investigation prompted by the release last month of a dashboard camera video showing Officer Jason Van Dyke firing 16 shots at Laquan McDonald.

The department's training figures to be one component of the U.S. Justice Department's investigation. One longtime Chicago officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said firearms training includes teaching officers to assess their surroundings, taking into account whether people are nearby.

But they must balance everything against the threat they try to stop.

"You assess the situation and respond accordingly, but what the bottom line is if it is your life or someone else's life is in danger, that takes precedence over everything," the officer said.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the department does not keep track of innocent bystanders shot by police officers.

In the split-second that life-or-death decisions must be made, mistakes clearly happen. In 2010, an officer on the West Side accidentally shot a fellow cop while aiming at a man carrying what turned out to be a paintball gun.

Some situations might seem an obvious call — a report of a gunman at a crowded downtown festival, for example, would dictate not firing a gun.

Yet one of the most infamous examples of a police officer taking an innocent life was the 2012 killing of Rekia Boyd, who was mistakenly shot in the head when off-duty Detective Dante Servin fired into a group of people outside his West Side home.

Servin fired from his car at a man he claimed was pointing a weapon toward him after the officer told the man and his friends to keep the noise down. Servin struck and wounded his intended target, Antonio Cross, early morning March 21, 2012, but also hit Boyd, who was standing a few feet away.

Servin's actions led to rare criminal charges against a Chicago police officer in the death of a civilian. He was acquitted in a trial that turned largely on legal questions of whether the off-duty officer fired his weapon intentionally or was reckless. But the department's internal investigation into his actions focused on whether he violated Chicago police policy that morning, including firing into a crowd.

Servin has maintained he feared for his life that night. And, according to the Independent Police Review Authority documents, he said he did not believe anyone else was in harm's way when he fired his weapon. In the end, the IPRA concluded that though Servin "could reasonably believe" there was a "threat to his or her safety," he should not have fired.

"However the same officer would also reasonably identify the inherent danger that could result in firing his or her weapon at a subject in close proximity to innocent bystanders," an IPRA investigator said in a report. "The level of care and concern expected of an officer with similar training and experience, in a similar circumstance, makes Detective Servin's use of deadly force objectively unreasonable, and therefore in violation of policy."

IPRA recommended in September that Servin be fired, a move that was backed by former Superintendent Garry McCarthy shortly before McCarthy was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel amid the McDonald video fallout. The matter is now before the nine-member mayoral-appointed Chicago Police Board.

According to the Chicago police general orders, officers are not allowed to fire into crowds, fire warning shots or fire into buildings or through doors, windows or other openings when the person being targeted isn't visible. They're also prohibited from shooting people trying to kill themselves or firing at a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only weapon being used against the cop.

David Klinger, an expert on police use of force, said officers being trained for shootings must take into account people standing behind the person they're targeting, as well as others to the side or in front of the suspect. Klinger said officers must practice what he calls "subject discrimination," getting an idea of who is the likely innocent bystander and who is the likely suspect when pulling up to a scene.

Ultimately, training and experience come into play, the longtime Chicago officer said. "When the stress level goes up, normally performance goes down unless you have been in pressure situations before, and you are able to still perform with a clear head and see things," he said.

In another case in which IPRA ruled against an officer, police responding to a domestic argument were told there was a man with a handgun in a bedroom. In the mayhem that left the man dead, three officers fired their weapons and one of them shot into a wall without clearly seeing his target. IPRA found that officer violated department policy and in 2013 recommended a three-day suspension.

On New Year's Day 2014, Kierra Williamson, who was pregnant, was struck by a stray bullet from a Chicago police officer's gun while inside a Roseland neighborhood home. The on-duty officer who shot her, Wilfredo Ortiz, also shot Michael Williamson and Princeton Williamson after police say one of the men fired a gun into the air.

Although one of the men faces a criminal trial on weapons violations and other charges, they and Kierra Williamson have filed a federal lawsuit against Ortiz, other officers and the city. That case is pending. The police shooting is still be investigated by IPRA.

Klinger, the use-of-force expert, said the slightest mistake may leave an indelible mark with the officer even if the cop shot their intended target.

"Human beings who go into law enforcement are human beings before they become cops, right?" he said. "And they don't go into law enforcement to kill people, and certainly not innocent people."

Brian Warner, a Chicago police officer who runs a support group for officers involved in shootings, said the trauma of a shooting for an officer is complicated when a bystander is involved.

"It's tragic. You don't want to take a life," he said. "It's the last thing officers want to do. If he shoots the intended threat, that is difficult enough. I can't imagine what the officer is going through."

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