An off-duty Chicago police officer mentioned a person he shot within the head final 12 months was making an attempt to interrupt into his residence. A brand new lawsuit argues that is not what occurred – and the person’s lawyer says surveillance movies of the incident inform a really totally different story.
The lawsuit filed in federal court docket final month argues that 33-year-old Jose Mendoza was unarmed and posed no menace when he was shot within the head by Officer Iwan Smith within the early morning hours of March 31, 2021.
Footage from responding officers’ body-worn cameras after the capturing reveals Smith saying he thought the person was making an attempt to interrupt into the condo he shared together with his girlfriend and baby within the metropolis’s Albany Park neighborhood. Mendoza was arrested and charged with felony residence invasion, housebreaking and felony trespass.
However Mendoza’s lawyer says in any other case, pointing to surveillance movies from contained in the constructing that present what occurred.
“This was not a break-in, it was not a house invasion,” Mendoza’s lawyer Thomas Glasgow mentioned. “To characterize it as such is simply absurd.”
Glasgow says Mendoza had been out ingesting, was planning to spend the night time with a pal and easily entered the unsuitable constructing. Surveillance video launched by Chicago’s Civilian Workplace of Police Accountability, the company which investigates use-of-force allegations towards cops, seems to indicate that Mendoza was barely in a position to stand as he entered the constructing at 1:13 a.m.
The time stamp on the recording reveals Mendoza even sitting down on the steps at one level, staying within the constructing’s vestibule for 9 minutes after he entered earlier than he may be seen climbing the 5 steps from the vestibule to the first-floor condo, occupied by Smith.
“My consumer wasn’t trespassing – there’s no pry marks on the door,” Glasgow mentioned. “There’s no pressure getting used, there’s no pressure being utilized. You’re coping with any person who’s fairly merely intoxicated.”
After standing in entrance of the condo for just a few seconds, Mendoza may be seen squatting on the ground in entrance of the door, which isn’t within the digital camera’s discipline of view. A burst of sunshine signifies the door opens, at which level Mendoza stands up. A number of seconds later, he slumps to the ground, bleeding profusely from a wound in his head.
“When the officer opened the door he was sitting on the bottom,” Glasgow mentioned. “When the officer opened the door, he stood up, and when he stood up, the officer shot him within the head.”
After just a few seconds, the video reveals Mendoza flying backwards. Glasgow mentioned the officer kicked him out of the best way and shut the door.
“Officer Smith by no means patted Plaintiff down to find out if he possessed a weapon,” the grievance reads. “At no time did Officer Smith try to render Plaintiff first help.”
Certainly, the time stamp on the video signifies it wasn’t till some six minutes after the capturing that Smith may be seen opening the door of the condo and stepping over Mendoza as police arrived after being summoned by Smith’s girlfriend, who referred to as 911. Nonetheless carrying his service weapon and displaying his badge, Smith shortly recognized himself as a fellow Chicago police officer.
“He knocked on my door,” Smith is heard telling arriving officers on body-won digital camera video posted on the COPA web site. “As I approached to open it, he pushed it in. And I attempted to shut it, he simply pushed, he compelled his manner in and I didn’t know what…”
Mendoza misplaced a lot of his imaginative and prescient however survived the capturing. Glasgow mentioned his consumer suffers different lingering results and almost a full 12 months later, he continues to be held with out bond at Prepare dinner County Jail.
“The truth that my consumer was shot for no different motive than being drunk is one thing that’s extremely disturbing,” Glasgow mentioned. “He wasn’t trespassing – he walked into an space that you just or I might have walked into.”
“It was very painful to see these movies,” Mendoza’s mom Rachel Mendoza advised NBC 5 Investigates. “It tears my coronary heart, and I attempt to be robust. It’s very onerous.”
Glasgow mentioned the Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer’s workplace hs chosen to proceed towards Mendoza in court docket on a previous DUI case earlier than litigating the alleged residence invasion. And he mentioned that’s stopping him from shortly proving that what began as an allegation of an tried break-in is contradicted by the video proof.
“If this was you or me who dedicated the acts that the police officer dedicated, we’d in all probability be sitting in jail with a no bond for an try homicide,” Glasgow mentioned. “You possibly can’t simply open the door and shoot any person within the head.”
The officer’s lawyer didn’t reply to request for remark. Smith was relieved of police powers in June 2021. COPA’s investigation into the capturing continues.