A veteran off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy who attempted to steal her car at gunpoint at 3 a.m. Sunday on the South Side, said police officials, who called the action an appropriate use of deadly force.
The officer fired “several” times after she ordered the youth, Robert Washington, out of the car and he turned toward her, Police Department spokesman Pat Camden said.
It was the third fatal shooting of a civilian by a Chicago police officer since May 3.
The officer, who was not identified, was dropping off a relative near 68th and Morgan Streets when Washington approached the passenger side, pulled a handgun and ordered the two people out of the car, police said. Washington got in through the passenger side, slid across the seat and was behind the steering wheel when the woman, standing outside the car, announced that she was a police officer and ordered him to get out of the car, Camden said.
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“He turns toward the officer and she opens fire,” said Camden, who said the officer feared for her life.
The officer fired through the rear window on the driver’s side, Camden said. Washington was shot several times, a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner said.
Washington’s mother defended her son on Sunday, calling the fatal shooting “cold-blooded.”
“My son didn’t carry no gun,” LaWanda Washington said. “He wasn’t no gang-banger. He wasn’t that kind of kid.”
Washington said her son returned to Chicago two months ago after living with relatives for the past two years in Waterloo, Iowa. She said he received B’s and C’s in school in Iowa and that he would have been a junior at Robeson High School this fall.
Robert Washington lived with his mother in the 6800 block of South Peoria Street, two blocks from the shooting.
Camden said the officer has been on the force for nine or 10 years. The department’s Office of Professional Standards will review the case, but an initial investigation indicates the officer acted “in compliance with department regulations and state statutes governing the use of deadly force,” Camden said.
LaWanda Washington said witnesses told her that her son put his hands up and said, “Wait, wait, ” when the officer pulled her weapon. Camden said the preliminary investigation does not indicate that.
On May 3, Chicago police shot and killed Joseph Zagar, 39, when he drew an object from his waistband and pointed it at his head and then at officers. The object turned out to be a battery pack. A preliminary investigation determined the officers acted appropriately.
Ten days later, police shot and killed Michael Taylor, 20, when they said he pulled a gun while being pursued after officers broke up what appeared to be a drug deal. Community members said he was not armed, and police said he he was. That shooting was also deemed proper use of force.