Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer shot to death at Thompson Center in Loop
February 14, 2018 by admin
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A high-ranking Chicago police officer was shot to death at the Thompson Center Tuesday afternoon while assisting a tactical team who were chasing a suspect, police said.
Commander Paul Bauer of the Near North District was shot several times a little before 2 p.m., according to police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. He said a suspect was taken into custody and a gun recovered.
“It’s a difficult day for us, but we’ll get through it,” Johnson told reporters outside Northwestern Hospital, where Bauer had been taken.
Bauer, 53, joined the department in 1986 and worked all across the city over his career – from the South Side to the specialized mounted patrol unit to his current position as commander of the busy and high-profile Near North District.
Bauer was shot after a suspect started running from tactical officers who had attempted to stop him for questioning, according to Johnson. They radioed a description that the commander heard, he said. Bauer, at the Thompson Center for a training session, confronted the suspect, who opened fire.
Police radio traffic caught the moments before the shooting, including a warning from one of the pursuing officers, “Don’t anybody get hurt. We just wanted to do a street stop on him.”
At the beginning of the chase, an officer is heard saying over the radio that he had tried to stop the suspect but he took off running. “He took off, he was running from me, we just had a shooting the other day,” the officer radioed.
He described the suspect as wearing a long black coat with a fur collar and last seen running south on Dearborn Street. Within a minute, another officer said he saw the man. He told a dispatcher he was near Clark and Lake streets, “State of Illinois building towards City Hall.”
It was the last thing heard from the officer. The dispatcher asked, repeatedly, over the course of more than three minutes for the officer to come back on the air. There was no response.
The first officer came back on the air and said, “Don’t anybody get hurt. We just wanted to do a street stop on him and he took off on me. But he was in the area where we’ve had a lot of narcotics sales and a shooting on Saturday.”
The dispatcher replied, “I understand, but somebody else is following him and we want to make sure we get him help.”
A different officer came on the air and said they found the suspect and had him in handcuffs. They said the suspect had a gun on him.
The original officer came back on the air reporting a person had been shot. “We have a person shot in the stairwell. Possibly related to the guy we were chasing at the State of Illinois building.”
The dispatcher said, “OK, is that an off-duty PO (police officer)?”
“There’s a radio laying (sic) next to him. Oh s—. Squad, I need somebody over here ASAP. It is.”
Dispatcher: “We have a 10-1, we have an off-duty shot. We have units on the scene.”
Noreen Janko said she was walking back to her office building across the street from the Thompson Center when she heard shots.
“I heard the gunshots go off, about five shots, and then the stairs there to the pedway, I think they have the guy cornered because they lock those doors down there,” Janko said. “So they took him with shackles and then they put him in the squad. Then the ambulance came, about five minutes (later) they brought out a guy who was shot. He was on the stretcher, there was blood and they were doing (CPR).
“I was walking down the street and I heard ‘pop pop pop pop pop,’ ” Janko said. “And I said to the girl next to me, ‘Is that what I think it is?’ And she said ‘Yep.’ I said ‘Aw geez.’ And everybody is scurrying all over and I see the police head to the stairs there. There’s a stairwell there. And it goes downstairs. I heard that the door is locked there. It used to be a pedway, but now, for security reasons they have it locked.”
“Anyway, so they had him cornered and eventually they brought him up the stairs and put him in the squad,” Janko said.
During his tenure in the Near North District, Bauer spoke publicly about trying to rebuild trust in the community but also the frustration he felt about the “high bar to prosecution” when it came to career offenders.
“We’re not talking about the guy who stole a loaf of bread from the store to feed his family,” he told the Loop North News in November 2017. “We’re talking about career robbers, burglars, drug dealers. These are all crimes against the community. They need to be off the street.”
In a video posted on YouTube last year for a community news program on an independent television station, the commander spoke of his efforts in his district to connect with the community through monthly coffees.
“I know there is a perception out there that there is this wall, a lot of mistrust in the Police Department,” he said. “I have never been thanked more for my service in the last two to three years total, compared to the previous 28 years.”
As officers gathered at Northwestern, Johnson sent out an email to members of his department: “Today, our department suffered a tragedy that it is difficult to comprehend. This afternoon, a CPD commander was shot while assisting fellow officers. Information is still coming in at this time, but I wanted you to know as soon as possible. We will provide additional details as they come. Please take the time to keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. Stay safe.”
The superintendent later told reporters that he had talked to Bauer’s wife and daughter. He appealed to the city to keep the family in their prayers.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement saying Bauer “stood for the highest ideals of our police department and our city — to serve and protect the people of Chicago. His death is a tragic reminder of the dangerous duty the men and women of our police department accept to ensure the safety of us all.”
Outside the emergency room entrance, about a dozen plainclothes officers gathered in the middle of Erie Street. A number of marked and unmarked police and Chicago Fire Department vehicles, some of them with emergency lights flashing, were parked outside.
A uniformed officer hugged another officer in the middle of the street.
At the scene of the shooting, officers stretched crime tape from City Hall to the Thompson Center. A police command van arrived at 2:25 p.m.
Federal agents and Illinois state police joined Chicago detectives. Onlookers crowded the corners, and people at times had to dodge falling ice. Many workers said they could not get back into the buildings.
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Three Milwaukee Jail Officers Charged in Dehydration Death
February 13, 2018 by admin
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The announcement on Monday of charges against Major Evans and two others — Lt. Kashka Meadors and James Ramsey-Guy, a correctional officer — came more than nine months after that inquest, a relatively rare court proceeding in which jurors review evidence relating to a death and decide whether to recommend charges. The four other jail employees who were faulted by jurors at the inquest are not expected to face charges, Mr. Chisholm said, but the investigation was continuing.
Mr. Thomas was arrested in April 2016 and accused of shooting a man and later firing a gun inside a hotel and casino, according to local news reports. A federal lawsuit filed by Mr. Thomas’s estate said he had bipolar disorder and had been prescribed medication by a psychiatrist.
Once he was at the jail in downtown Milwaukee, prosecutors said, Mr. Thomas flooded his cell by stuffing his mattress cover into the toilet. The charging documents said that when Mr. Thomas was moved to another cell, Lieutenant Meadors told Mr. Ramsey-Guy to turn off the water supply to that cell. For the next week, Mr. Thomas did not leave his cell, and was not given any water.
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“He was literally punished for the manifestations of his mental illness,” said Erik Heipt, a lawyer for Mr. Thomas’s estate who has filed a federal lawsuit against Milwaukee County and jail officials. “He was not in his right mind. You don’t take someone like that and then punish them by turning off their water.”
After Mr. Thomas’s death, prosecutors said, Major Evans had a guard watch a week’s worth of security video footage of Mr. Thomas’s cell, which showed that the water had never been turned back on. Prosecutors said she did not take steps to preserve that video, and it was eventually recorded over and deleted.
Major Evans was charged with obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor, and misconduct in office, a felony. Mr. Ramsey-Guy and Lieutenant Meadors were each charged with felony neglect of a resident of a penal facility, which can carry more than three years in prison.
Court records did not list lawyers for Major Evans or Mr. Ramsey-Guy as of Monday afternoon. Both defendants — as well as Lieutenant Meadors — were suspended with pay on Monday by Richard Schmidt, the acting sheriff of Milwaukee County.
Ben Van Severen, a lawyer for Lieutenant Meadors, said his client had worked at the jail for more than 17 years and intended to plead not guilty.
“We were very surprised to see the charges,” said Mr. Van Severen, adding that “we would just caution against a rush to judgment.”
Sheriff Schmidt said on Monday that he was “very confident” the jail had been “transformed” by new leaders since he succeeded David A. Clarke Jr. as sheriff last year. Mr. Clarke’s tough-on-crime approach was lauded by President Trump and other conservatives, but critics said he led a troubled department and a dangerous jail. Four inmates died at the Milwaukee County Jail in 2016, and a Wisconsin congresswoman called for a federal investigation of the facility.
Asked on Monday whether Mr. Clarke, who was not charged, had been investigated in connection with Mr. Thomas’s death, Mr. Chisholm said he believed his office had charged the people who were most culpable.
Sheriff Schmidt said the accusations against his employees were “horrific” and that “my heart bleeds” for Mr. Thomas’s family.
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Sheriff Schmidt said a decision on departmental discipline for the officers could be made as soon as Friday. “This is serious stuff,” he said. “I care.”
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