Videos of police shooting at CTA Red Line station released by COPA

Sarah Schulte Image
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Videos showing police shooting on CTA Red Line released by COPA
New videos that show a Chicago police officer shooting an unarmed man at a CTA Red Line station have been released.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The agency that investigates use of force by Chicago police has released new videos that show an officer shooting an unarmed man who apparently tried to escape arrest at a busy downtown CTA station earlier this year.

RELATED: Mayor Lori Lightfoot calls CTA Red Line shooting video 'extremely disturbing'

A man was injured in a police-involved shooting in the Grand CTA Red Line station Friday afternoon.

CTA surveillance video shows Ariel Roman running up the CTA Red Line Grand station escalator after the 33-year-old was shot by a mass transit police officer in February. Roman collapses at the top before Chicago police bodycam video shows several officers responding.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, COPA, released all video involved in the incident on Tuesday, including the already shown witness cell phone video of the shooting. But Roman's attorney said what happened on the train between Roman and the officers is significant, especially the interaction with the female officer, who shot him minutes later.

"You can see that Ariel is totally cooperative, is not aggressive, not abrasive," said Greg Kulis, Roman's attorney.

The officers told Roman to get off the train because he was violating a city ordinance by walking from train car to train car. Once on the platform, a struggle between all three began. This is where cell phone video captures the officers trying to hold Roman down and arrest him as he resisted. The female officer Tased him before firing her gun at Roman.

"I didn't see any reason to take him into custody, I didn't see any reason to detain him, there was never any conversation about issuing any type of citation," Kulis said.

Roman is now recovering at home. He has filed an excessive force lawsuit. The officers involved were stripped of their police powers.