Man who filed lawsuit in 2020 CPD shooting at River North CTA station takes stand in civil trial
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Some of the video in this piece may be difficult to watch.
The man who Chicago police shot at a downtown Chicago CTA station several year ago took the stand in a civil trial Tuesday.
Officers shot Ariel Roman, who was unarmed, during a struggle at the Grand CTA Red Line station in 2020.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Opening statements started the day Tuesday, after a jury was selected Monday in the case.
Roman took the stand later in the day Tuesday to testify.
Roman claims his civil rights were violated, and that police did not need to shoot him.
He admitted he had been drinking and had drugs on him that February day when he was shot twice by Chicago police officers. He says it was because of that he resisted their attempts to detain him, after he illegally crossed between cars on a moving Red Line train.
Cell phone video shows the moments just before Roman was first shot, as he struggled with officers in the vestibule of the CTA's Red Line platform.
The encounter took place shortly after then-Officer Melvina Bogard and her partner, Bernard Butler, witnessed Roman crossing between moving train cars.
"When I heard the shot, I thought she had done a warning shot," Roman said, admitting he did not realize what had happened at first.
Both CTA and witness video shows Roman was shot twice by Bogard following a five-minute struggle, during which Roman resisted officers' attempts to detain him, first using handcuffs, then pepper spray.
Cell phone video played in court clearly shows Butler yelling "shoot him," not once, but multiple times.
Butler's attorneys said his client meant for Bogard to shoot him with pepper spray.
"I didn't want to be handcuffed. I didn't want them to search the bag," Roman said.
The officer who shot Roman was found not guilty of battery and misconduct in a 2022 trial.
The officer's attorneys argued she fired in self-defense.
She has since resigned from the department.
RELATED: Videos of police shooting at CTA Red Line station released by COPA
Roman did face charges, including resisting arrest, but they were later dropped.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended both officers be fired.
RELATED: Man shot by Chicago police at CTA Red Line station sues city, officers
Butler was suspended for a year without pay.
According to Roman's lawyers, the city has already spent more than a million dollars defending this case.
It's unusual that they did not reach a pre-trial settlement, as is common with police-involved shootings.
The civil lawsuit aims to prove that both Bogard and Butler violated Roman's constitutional rights: she, by using excessive force against him, he, by failing to intervene and ordering the shooting.
Bogard's attorney Tuesday said she did not mean to shoot Roman the second time.
Because this is a civil case and not a criminal one, the jury only has to decide if the allegations against the officers are more likely true than not.
Testimony continues Wednesday at the Dirksen Federal Building.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.
The city of Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trial beginning.
