Quote:
Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
Latanya Haggerty-Chicago |
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1...t-joseph-roddy
Untold Story Of Haggerty Shooting
Report Shows Witnesses Don't Back Cop's Account
September 12, 1999|By Todd Lighty, Tribune Staff Writer.
Moments after Chicago Police Officer Serena Daniels shot and killed an unarmed woman, she knelt next to her on the sidewalk, placed her head on a leather coat, stroked her bloody hair and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot you. I thought you had a gun."
The scene was the aftermath of an increasingly chaotic police chase of the woman, LaTanya Haggerty, and her companion, Raymond Smith, that ended with Haggerty's death.
In the internal police report obtained by the Tribune that has led Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard to recommend that Daniels and three other officers be fired, new details have emerged about the traffic stop of Smith that began the incident, his account of feeling endangered by hostile officers and the confusion that led to Daniels firing her gun.
Significantly, the report shows that not one eyewitness corroborates Daniels' contention that Haggerty had a shiny, silver object in her right hand that could have been mistaken for a gun.
In fact, a police officer standing on the passenger side of the car with his gun drawn on Haggerty told authorities that--like the other witnesses--he saw a cellular telephone in Haggerty's left hand but never saw a shiny object in her right hand.
Police did find a 4-inch silver padlock, the type placed on a car's steering column to guard against theft, on the front passenger floor. However, no discernible fingerprints were found on it, prompting Haggerty's family to suggest that Daniels made up the story about the shiny object afterward.
Haggerty's brother, Maurice, said it was hard to believe his sister would pick up a padlock.
"Why? To lock up the officer?" he said Friday. "Being an officer is a difficult job. But you have to know the difference between a cell phone, a supposed padlock and a non-existent gun."
Neither the Haggerty family lawyer, James Montgomery, nor the officers' lawyer, Joseph Roddy, could be reached for comment.
The 636-page report detailing the shooting contains police documents, photographs, medical records, Smith's statement and statements of other witnesses, and the officers' versions of the shooting--the first public account of the incident in their words.
The officers said Smith escalated the situation by not cooperating, by trying to run them over with his car and by fleeing. Further, they added, Haggerty ignored repeated commands to raise her hands and get out of the car when officers finally stopped it on King Drive.
The report, compiled by the Police Department's Office of Professional Standards, concludes that the physical evidence and witness accounts, including that of Officer Stafford Wilson, one of the four officers at the shooting scene, support the finding that Daniels unjustly shot Haggerty.
"Wilson indicated that from his position at the passenger side of the vehicle, he saw Ms. Haggerty holding the cellular telephone in her left hand," according to the report.
"He related that he did not see Ms. Haggerty's right hand because his view was blocked by the front passenger door.
"He further indicated that he never saw Ms. Haggerty raise her right hand, nor did he see the padlock until removing Ms. Haggerty from the vehicle after she was shot."
The report also details how a routine traffic stop by young officers turned into a deadly encounter with Haggerty, who had no previous run-ins with the law.
Haggerty, 26, was the youngest of Maurice Sr. and Barbara Haggerty's four children. Friends described her as articulate and outgoing.
A slender woman who dreamed of being a model, Haggerty worked as a computer analyst at the downtown offices of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., helping co-workers learn about spreadsheets.
Smith told investigators he often gave Haggerty, a friend from student days at Southern Illinois University, a ride from work to her home in the 9200 block of South Laflin Street.
About 4:30 p.m. on a cloudy, warm June 4, Smith picked up Haggerty at Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard.
On their way home, Smith stopped his gray 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass in traffic on Cottage Grove Avenue near 89th Street to talk briefly with a friend who had left a jacket in Smith's car, according to his statement to investigators.
A police cruiser carrying Daniels and her partner, Michael Williams, pulled up alongside Smith. Daniels, who was riding on the passenger side, asked Smith if he had a driver's license and insurance. He said he did.
Williams, according to Smith's account, leaned forward and told him to get his "punk ass" off the street, something Williams denied saying in his statement to investigators.
Smith drove another block south on Cottage Grove and pulled over when he noticed flashing emergency lights in his rear-view mirror. It was Williams and Daniels again.
