A 57-year-old Black man was reportedly shot a number of occasions by Chicago law enforcement officials who responded final week to a 911 name from his girlfriend, who mentioned he was holding a knife and performing surprisingly.
Charlotta Pritchett mentioned at a press convention on Monday that her boyfriend Timothy Glaze was having a psychological well being subject and that police used extreme power after they arrived at her sixth-floor condo of the Albany Terrace Flats, a public housing constructing for seniors within the Little Village neighborhood of southwest Chicago round 2 a.m. on January 3.
Pritchett mentioned Glaze, whom she had identified for six years, was exhibiting an odd demeanor that night, had a “glazed look in his eye,” and had been strolling round for about an hour holding a paring knife, so she known as 911.
“He sat subsequent to me on the mattress with this knife. Like I mentioned, he was treating it prefer it was a pencil or pen, and I feel he mentioned, ‘I’m not going to harm you. I simply wish to speak to you,’ and I simply felt uneasy,” Pritchett mentioned. “I knew he wanted some assist I couldn’t present.”
When police confirmed up, Pritchett, who had taken refuge in a neighbor’s condo, mentioned she heard police radios and two or three voices command Glaze to “Cease! Don’t transfer!” Then they started “wildly capturing,” she mentioned.
“Earlier than I might get out of the chair to say, ‘Hey, I’m the woman who known as,’ I didn’t get an opportunity to get to the door once we heard this monumental quantity of gunfire, at the very least 35 or 40 rounds, and I froze, and the woman who was sitting with me, she checked out me and she or he mentioned, ‘I’m so sorry, however your pal is useless,’” Pritchett mentioned.
“I don’t wish to name 911 ever once more in my life as a result of it took his life, and that’s not what it’s presupposed to do. It’s presupposed to serve and shield,” Pritchett mentioned.
In accordance with a evaluate of police audio by the Chicago Solar Occasions, when Pritchett known as 911 she reported that Glaze was holding a knife and a screwdriver.
When police arrived and knocked on the door, Glaze “confronted” and “superior” at them with the knife, in line with a police assertion. Officers then shot him a number of occasions. They instantly rendered medical help, however Glaze, who had been shot within the chest, was pronounced useless on the hospital.
Pritchett and several other neighborhood activists who spoke on the convention mentioned Glaze was a small, medically frail man who didn’t pose a risk to officers, they usually questioned why police didn’t use de-escalation ways earlier than resorting to deadly power.
Glaze weighed 125 kilos, was recovering from most cancers, and moved slowly, Pritchett mentioned.
“To return right into a senior constructing with that a lot firepower, when you could possibly tase, you could possibly mace. However him being so small and also you all being so massive, a few you could possibly have simply rushed him, and grabbed him,” she mentioned.
“The man had prostate most cancers, he had liver most cancers, and he had colon most cancers, fourth stage, and he moved like a snail,” mentioned Charles Odum, chair of Union to Finish Slums, a housing equity and legal justice advocacy group.
“A resident, a visitor right here had a psychological disaster, and as an alternative of getting medical consideration, he obtained 28 bullets,” mentioned Baltazar Enriques with the Little Village Group Council.
Pritchett mentioned that the Cook dinner County Medical Examiner instructed Glaze’s household that he was shot 28 occasions.
Pritchett additionally mentioned that regardless of having an lively order of safety in opposition to Glaze, he was homeless, sick and being handled for psychological well being points, and she or he took him in, as he was within the remaining phases of life. He was within the strategy of making use of for his personal sponsored condo on the senior housing constructing.
Glaze’s legal historical past contains a number of arrests over the past twenty years for home battery, although many of the counts had been later dropped, reported the Solar Occasions. He was convicted in 2006 of home battery and sentenced to serve 100 days in jail.
Chicago’s Civilian Workplace of Police Accountability (COPA), an administrative company that operates independently of the police division and which investigates officer-involved shootings and allegations of extreme power, is now investigating the incident.
COPA mentioned in a press release {that a} knife was recovered on the scene and that body-worn cameras captured the preliminary interplay and subsequent capturing. Evidentiary supplies associated to the incident, together with video, will probably be uploaded on COPA’s web site inside 60 days.
Pritchett, members of Glaze’s household and a few neighborhood members are demanding that the physique cam footage be launched sooner, inside 10 enterprise days of the incident.
“We wish to make it possible for not solely that we get the movies, however we additionally get these officers charged with homicide,” mentioned Enriquez.
Glaze’s household additionally demanded “a full and clear investigation into this tragic incident” in a press release launched on Monday. “As a household , we’re in deep mourning and struggling to grasp how Timothy’s life might be taken in such a brutal and extreme method. Timothy, who was experiencing a psychological well being disaster, deserved assist, compassion and care — not bullets. … Each particular person, particularly in these moments of profound vulnerability, deserves to be handled with dignity and respect.”
The household hopes “this unimaginable loss will encourage significant change in how legislation enforcement responds to psychological well being emergencies.”
COPA’s investigative course of contains reviewing all the obtainable proof, together with police video and audio, in addition to potential third get together cellular phone and doorbell video, and interviewing police and civilian witnesses, mentioned a spokesperson.
A remaining abstract report with disciplinary suggestions for the officers, who’ve been placed on “routine administrative duties” for at the very least 30 days, will probably be issued by COPA on the finish of their investigation, which might take a yr or extra. These suggestions might embrace suspension, termination, extra coaching, or no disciplinary motion. The Chicago police superintendent then has 60 days to evaluate and settle for or reject COPA’s findings, after which the Chicago Police Board will make a remaining dedication, if essential.
The 2023 annual report by COPA mentioned the civilian company and the police division agreed on tips on how to resolve 98 p.c of all investigations closed with findings that yr, which included 64 officer-involved shootings, 8 of which had been deadly, and 31 p.c of which had been discovered to be “inside [police] coverage.”
