An unarmed man shot by a Chicago police officer during an ATF-led firearms sting in Country Club Hills was misidentified in now-dismissed federal charges in June as one of the gunmen who allegedly tried to rob the agents, the U.S. attorney’s office now says.
A criminal complaint made public Tuesday charged a new suspect, Dontrell Gordon, with participating in the June 9 incident, which resulted in two people being shot by law enforcement, including Demond Edwards.
In an unusual footnote in the 13-page complaint against Gordon, the U.S. attorney’s office said Edwards had been incorrectly identified in previous charges as one of the people who had approached the undercover agents’ car during the undercover operation dressed in all black and with weapons drawn.
Further investigation has determined that person was actually Gordon, according to the charges.
The new charges were the latest development in a case that erupted in controversy two months ago when bystander cellphone video surfaced that directly disputed the account of the shooting provided by agents in the sworn complaint.
The case has also added to the turmoil surrounding the U.S. attorney’s office since the meltdown of the “Broadview Six” case in May, which has led to calls for sanctions and for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros to resign.
The Tribune has learned that Boutros reassigned the chief of the section overseeing the case several weeks ago, though the reasons for doing so are unclear.
The U.S. attorney’s office did not say the employee had erred in handling the case, and several sources told the Tribune that there had been pressure to get an indictment returned in the matter after the original dismissal.
Boutros’ office had no comment Tuesday.
Meanwhile, prosecutors did secure an indictment in the case in late June, but it had remained under seal until Tuesday. In that case, Edwards was not among those charged, nor was another of the original defendants, Chashonn Toney, who had been accused of participating in the attempted robbery before running from the scene.
Instead, the grand jury returned charges against two people: Amir Fagan, who was also wounded by gunfire during the incident, and Darrion Rayford, who was arrested along with Gordon on Monday, according to the complaint.
Gordon was charged in the complaint with one count each of attempted robbery and use of a firearm during a robbery. He made an initial appearance in court Tuesday afternoon, where prosecutors sought to have him held without bond pending trial based on a danger to the community and risk of flight.
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U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes ordered Gordon remain in custody pending a detention hearing on Thursday.
His lawyer, Shady Yassim, declined to comment.
Rayford is also scheduled for a detention hearing Thursday, court records show. Fagan, meanwhile, was ordered held pending trial following his arrest last month.
Rayford’s attorney could not immediately be reached Tuesday. An attorney for Fagan had no comment.
Edwards’ civil attorney, Basileios “Bill” Foutris, told the Tribune on Tuesday it was “absolutely outrageous” that the U.S. attorney’s office had charged him in the first place.
“He didn’t match the descirption of the offenders at all,” Foutris said. “He never should have been charged. He never should have been shot.”
The charges involve an undercover sting near 189th Street and Loretto Lane in Country Club Hills that was led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and included the Illinois State Police, Chicago police, and the FBI.
According to prosecutors, two undercover ATF officers and a confidential informant had planned to engage in a controlled firearms purchase in Country Club Hills as part of a larger, ongoing investigation into a firearms-trafficking scheme in the Chicago area.
Leading up to the purchase, the two undercover officers and the informant, who has been cooperating with federal officials for nearly a decade, met at a staging area in Midlothian before picking up a fourth person, who directed them to a residence on the 18800 block of Loretto Lane, the complaint alleged.
A short time later, a white Dodge Dart pulled up behind the undercover vehicle that had multiple occupants, many wearing balaclava-style face masks, according to the complaint. Two people, now identified as Fagan and Gordon, exited the Dodge and approached the undercover car, while the ATF officers also got out, the complaint stated.
After one of the undercover agents showed them the $8,700 to purchase the firearms, “multiple doors to the Dodge Dart then opened and other individuals started to get out,” including a person now identified as Rayford, who pointed a gun at the officers, the complaint stated. Fagan and Gordon also drew weapons and pointed them at the officers and the informant, according to the complaint.
The complaint said backup arrived at the scene with lights and sirens activated and the would-be robbers ran.
The original charges alleged the responding agents opened fire, striking Fagan in the head and arm, but the new complaint against Gordon does not describe any shots being fired or say that Fagan was hit by gunfire.
Edwards, meanwhile, was shot a short distance away by a Chicago police officer who was detailed to the ATF squad that showed up as backup. The original charges, which were sworn out by an FBI agent, alleged the officer told Edwards to stop, to which Edwards replied something to the effect of “I’m not going back to jail.”
A physical altercation ensued, with Edwards striking the officer several times and the officer firing his weapon in response, the now-dismissed complaint said. Edwards was struck and taken to an area hospital
But cellphone video, recorded by someone in a nearby home, later surfaced showing Edwards and the officer wrestling in the street as the officer attempted to place him under arrest. After about 20 seconds, the video — which does not contain sound — shows Edwards break free and rise to his feet. Edwards did not appear to throw any punches, according to the video.
The officer, while still sitting on the pavement, then fired what appeared to be a single shot at Edwards from a few feet away. Edwards immediately collapsed next to an SUV parked nearby. About two minutes later, two local police cars arrived, soon followed by another, unmarked police vehicle.
Where Edwards was just prior to the shooting remains unknown. The video showed that Edwards was wearing red pants and a bright blue shirt at the time of the shooting — not the all-black getup and “balaclava-style face mask” described in the original charges.
Foutris, who filed a civil rights lawsuit on Edwards’ behalf in June, told the Tribune his client will likely lose the use of his legs for the rest of his life because of the shooting. He spent weeks at Advocate Christ Medical Center under intensive care and has since been released to a long-term care facility, Foutris said.
The U.S. attorney’s office dismissed the complaint on June 19, a little over a week after it was filed. In making the unusual move, Boutros’ top deputy, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan, explained in court that he and his boss only learned of the cellphone video at an unrelated anti-violence seminar a week after the charges were filed.
Yonan told the judge they were not aware that the prosecutors handling the case had not seen the footage at the time the criminal complaint was sworn out.
“We need to work through that because that was a problem and that obviously, if they had the video, I think a lot of these issues, hopefully, would have been solved,” Yonan said. “But they didn’t have the video. And so that’s — that’s the problem.”
In response, U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling referenced the controversy at Yonan’s office, noting “there is and always had been a presumption of regularity” that the government was being honest in its presentations to the court.
“This court is very concerned that I cannot rely on the information that is provided to me either from the U.S. attorney’s office or from agents that I’m — when I’m swearing out an affidavit now, right?” Hotaling said at a hearing on June 18, according to the transcript.
At the hearing on July 18, attorney Lisa Noller, who represents Fagan, said it appeared from the newly released videos that the agents misrepresented that Edwards was both shot at the scene and also fled in the car, an impossibility that she said was “just sad, if nothing else.”
“Edwards can’t be both people,” Noller said. “And so the complaint that puts my client with Mr. Edwards, when it is not Mr. Edwards, also calls into question the identification of Mr. Fagan in that same affidavit because the affidavit is, at minimum, reckless and potentially — and potentially worse.”
Prosecutors insisted that they were not acting in bad faith, but rather reacting to new information that continued to come in from a very tense situation involving multiple law enforcement agencies.
Boutros said in a statement at the time that the facts of the case were “fluid and developing” and that “more facts will be forthcoming.”
“Our decision to dismiss the complaint (Thursday) should not be read at all as a retreat of this case or the events giving rise to charges,” Boutros said.
Hotaling had set a date of July 2 to consider any potential sanctions against the U.S. attorney’s office for how it handled the initial case, but that never occurred because of the filing of the under-seal indictment, records show.
At least three agencies have pending investigations into the shooting, including the Illinois State Police, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which oversees shootings involving Chicago police officers.
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Last week, COPA officially released the bystander video in the case, as well as 911 calls and a use-of-force report by the Chicago police officer from that day. The agency also asked anyone with information or other video footage related to the incident to contact their office.
In a written statement, COPA gave a short narrative of the shooting that seemed to contradict what had been alleged in the earlier complaint. The statement said the preliminary investigation showed that, after observing the attempted robbery, the CPD officer “began a vehicle pursuit in an unmarked vehicle of one of the individuals.”
“Both the officer and individual exited their vehicles and shortly thereafter, the officer discharged their weapon, striking the individual,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Edwards filed a lawsuit in Cook County against the city and “unknown federal agents” in connection with the June 9 shooting. The suit alleges the officer who fired the shot was detailed to the investigation from the Chicago Police Department, and that he shot Edwards even though he knew he was unarmed.
The suit was later moved to U.S. District Court by request of the city Law Department, which said in a motion on July 26 that the officer’s actions “stem from his duties working hand-in-hand with the federal government in investigating firearms trafficking, investigating firearms related to violent crime, gathering data related to trafficking in firearms and conducting operations that will result in federal prosecution.”
“Further, pursuant to agreement between the Chicago Police Department and ATF as it relates to the Chicago Violent Crimes Task Force, any officer assigned to ATF as a task force officer is under the supervision of ATF,” the city’s Corporation Counsel wrote in the motion. “Therefore, the Unknown Chicago Police Officer for whom the City is allegedly vicariously liable was acting under a federal officer.”
U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras has given the city until Sept. 14 to answer the complaint, federal court records show.