Family of Miguel Vega, man killed by Chicago police in Pilsen, question officers' actions after shooting
CHICAGO (WLS) -- An angry family is demanding action after bodycam video was released of a deadly shooting involving Chicago police.
Miguel Vega was killed in what police called a "shootout" with officers claiming he had a gun. But his family is questioning that and the actions officers took in the moments following his shooting.
RELATED: COPA releases videos from fatal police shooting of Miguel Vega
Speaking slowly and deliberately, the brother of a man shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in Pilsen last month choked back tears.
"The police officer that shot my brother did not have any right shooting him behind his head," Eric Vega said. "You guys took someone that I truly cherished. What was your reason in shooting people that were running away?"
Eric Vega said he's watched every second of the police body cam footage released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability last week, and he said it's brutal.
"He cleared one clip, reloaded, emptied the second one out and again reloaded," Vega said.
Numerous body camera and dash camera videos show the frenzy near 19th and Loomis in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood one month ago.
Officers in an unmarked police vehicle reported shots being fired at their car, barely missing the officer in the passenger seat. In the body camera video released by COPA, you see that officer get out of his car and start firing shots. Miguel Vega was hit and killed.
"The bodycam footage released by COPA clearly illustrates and depicts that Miguel Vega was unarmed and was not the shooter," activist Mateo Zapata said.
Vega's brother believes the video shows the officer obsessed with trying to find a weapon at the scene.
"Instead of trying to help him out, you were more concerned with trying to find the weapon," Eric Vega said. "It breaks me to hear him during the video trying to gasp for air, trying to fight during his last moments."
Sobbing and speaking only in Spanish, Vega's mother said, "What the Chicago police did to my son is a crime."
Police did find a weapon. You hear police in the body camera video yelling when it was discovered.
"We got it, we got the gun. Do not pick it up. Don't touch it," police are heard saying in the video.
Chicago police initially put out a statement after the incident happened early last month. But since COPA released the bodycam footage last week, the department has referred all questions to them.
